New Brunswick music festivals get mixed grades on gender parity

While music festivals all over the world are looking to have gender parity in their lineups by 2022, some New Brunswick festivals are already close to reaching that mark while others are falling well below it.

In late February, more than 45 international music festivals, including the BBC Proms, New York's Winter Jazzfest and Toronto's North by Northeast, signed a pledge as a part of the Keychange program developed by the PRS Foundation, a U.K.-based talent agency. 

Industry group Canadian Women Working in Music compiles parity numbers for numerous Canadian festivals.

Of the seven New Brunswick festivals profiled by the group, the average grade would be a C, meaning only 30 per cent of performers are women. A female performer in the group's ratings might include a mostly male band with a female guitar player. 

Candace Shaw, the executive director of Canadian Women Working in Music, said a lot of promising things are being done with music festivals across the country, but there's still more work to do.

"We're still seeing that most festivals, the majority, are not achieving anything like gender parity," said Shaw.

Some festivals almost there

For Fredericton's Shivering Songs festival, a pledge may not be needed.

Canadian Women Working in Music has given the festival an A rating, noting the festival's 2017 lineup had 48 per cent female acts.

But Brendan Magee, the co-producer of the festival, said Shivering Songs won't stop there.

"We're proud that we've been able to do that, of course we don't want to rest on our laurels," said Magee.

"There's definitely more that we could do and more that we're going to be doing."

Rest of the story

Not all of the festivals in New Brunswick did as well as Shivering Songs, according to the women's group.

While some festivals, like Fredericton's Flourish Festival and Saint John's Area 506 Festival, both got a B rating, Fredericton Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival and Saint Andrews' Paddlefest received D ratings, only booking 18 and 16 per cent female acts respectively.

Brent Staeben, the music programmer for the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival, called the grade "disappointing."

"We as a board need to take this to heart, understand how we can make a better Harvest and address this for future festivals," Staeben wrote in an email to CBC News, adding that the 2018 festival has already been "fully programmed."

"This is something we see as part of a bigger issue within our industry — from the Board room to the stage to behind the sound board — and so we'll be looking at ways to create more balance and opportunity for women in all parts of our industry."

A statement from the Paddlefest committee said it had not been aware of the festival's low grade, but called the news "extremely upsetting."

"Paddlefest is a small festival but we're always striving to be more balanced and diverse when it comes to the acts that we book," the statement said. "Clearly we have a ways to go."

No pledges

CBC News asked 21 music festivals in New Brunswick if they were considering the gender parity goal, and the 11 that responded did not explicitly state they would sign a pledge to achieve it.

Magee, of the top-rated Shivering Songs, said a pledge shouldn't be necessary.

"I think that this whole notion of pledging is sort of funny in the sense that, really, there shouldn't need to be a pledge."

Beersville's Evolve Festival said it won't be making a pledge.

Jonas Colter, the executive director of the festival, said there are external factors that make gender parity difficult.

"It's just a promise that you couldn't make," he said.

"It's something you can work towards and it's something that we have been working towards for years. … To promise that it's going to be 51 per cent or 50 per cent by a certain date, I feel, would be absurd."

Colter said the festival is always looking to expand the number of female performers, but it has hit roadblocks.

"We've kicked the can, we've tried to identify some female headliners for our festival and we haven't been lucky," Colter  said.

"They haven't been available or maybe they wanted too much money and time is ticking and we do need a lineup."

Shaw called the lack of pledges in New Brunswick "disappointing."

"Music presenters across the country are having great success with gender-balanced lineups, and to say that's something they won't commit to really demonstrates a lack of understanding about the music industry in 2018," Shaw said.