Itβs 2024. Less than 25% of the musicians on stage at major US music festivals are women.
Book More Women is advocating for a more vibrant and welcoming music festival scene for all
the mission
The fire that drives Book More Women is the pervasive gender imbalance that has long plagued music festivals and the music industry as a whole.
The goal is to provide a visual representation of the problem, start conversations, track progress, and work towards better representation on future festival lineups and beyond.
Every fan and musician deserves a vibrant and welcoming music scene that is inviting, safe, and reflective of their community.
the methodology
Any band, group, or solo artist who is or features at least one woman or nonbinary musician as an βofficialβ permanent member will remain on the poster. Official social media pages, press photos, and interviews are used to determine who is and is not an official member of a group.
Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary folks are nonbinary regardless of assignment at birth.
Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2019
"Less than 25% of the musicians on stage at major US music festivals are women.β
This number was obtained by aggregating the results for the 2024 lineups for ten of the largest multi-genre US music festivals: Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Boston Calling, Bottlerock, Bourbon & Beyond, Coachella, Governors Ball, Hangout, Lollapalooza, and Outside Lands using the 2024 METHOD.
Coachella had 148 musical acts listed on the 2024 lineup poster. Each individual βofficialβ member musician of each act was counted. There were 279 musicians counted in all. Among these, 70 were women, 2 were nonbinary, and 207 were men. This gives the 2024 Coachella lineup (as shown on the chart below) percentages of: 25.1% women, 0.7% nonbinary, and 74.2% men.
Adding together these ten major festivals, there were 2,076 musicians counted: 498 women, 24 nonbinary, and 1,554 men. The overall aggregate percentages coming to: 24.7% women, 1.2% nonbinary, 74.1% men.
NEW! BOOK MORE WOMEN SHIRTS
BLOG + FEATURES
At the Festival: Personal festival recaps with a focus on female and nonbinary artists and fellow fan stories
Behind the Festival: Q+A interviews with festival organizers: get insight into their inspiration and process
The Book More Women Blog
The popular Instagram account Book More Women began tracking the statistical data for gender inclusivity on U.S. music festival lineups in 2018, and has grown to a following of over 16k over the last six years. The account has become hailed by the likes of Brandi Carlile, who says that founding her own festival (Girls Just Wanna Weekend) was directly inspired by seeing the data that Book More Women posts. The identity of the woman who runs this account and handles the hefty task of tracking this data has mostly been a mystery, and it took us five years to finally convince Abbey Carbonneau to join us for a SHEROES interview. In this not to miss conversation we learn about the methodology and inspiration behind Book More Women, and find out a bit about the passionate music fan that has single-handedly built it from the ground up..
