“Where are all the women at Coachella?” Buzzfeed asked in an article published shortly after this year’s lineup announcement. It was a valid question, as female-led outfits accounted for only 16% of the total bill. Though Buzzfeed offered no solutions, an article published in Slate a short time later deemed gender inequality to be an industry-wide epidemic and called on music festival organizers, who champion themselves as the bearers of alternative subcultures, to “expand beyond their narrow roots, maybe fans and organizers should start to take the commercially and critically successful female acts they currently deride more seriously.” It seems as if HARD Events co-founder Gary Richards is heeding that advice — and then some.
Today, Richards revealed plans for an all-female electronic music festival to take place in 2014. In an interview with WildSpice Magazine, Richards admitted that of all the performers that appeared at HARD Events from 2008-2013, only 8% were women. “I try my hardest to mix it up… I dunno why it ends up being more male-driven,” Richards said. “But I think hopefully it changes. I would love to have 60 female DJs that are all awesome. To me, I always think everything’s better with girls…there’s tons of cool female artists, I wish there were more.”
He continued: “I’ve been asked this question so many times that I feel like we need to develop it more. You know develop a brand or something…to give girls more of a chance I have a concept for a show that’s all girl performers… It’s not a 70,000-person event. But I do see more females coming up and I’m definitely gonna do it 2014.”
Richards went on to say the event would probably take place at Los Angeles’ Palladium, but admitted he still has a long way to go before making it a reality. “I’m not worried about selling the tickets, it’s just getting them all at the same time.”