2022 UK festivals, ranked by the number of women and non-binary people in their line-ups

2022 has been the first year since Covid-19 that all major UK festivals have been really up and running again. It’s no surprise that many people have gone to festivals this summer, after having to miss out for years due to the pandemic.

Line-ups for many festivals have been impressive this year in terms of big acts, but there is still many more male performers than female and non-binary people. This year a BBC investigation found only 13 per of UK festival headline are female, which is roughly one in ten. This is after a promise many festivals made to make their line-ups a 50/50 gender balance by 2022.

There has been improvements this year from most festivals as compared to last year, however women are still severely underrepresented, with only one major festival having a line-up that is 50/50. Here is a ranking of the major UK festivals based on how many women and non-binary people they have in their line-ups , including bands that have female and non-binary members:

6. Wireless – 28 per cent

Wireless has made a big improvement from last year going from only 10 per cent to 28 per cent, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Four out of seven of Wireless’ headliners across the three venues this year were female or non-binary, so that is a positive.

5. Parklife – 30 per cent

Last year Parklife almost reached the 50/50 quota with 44 per cent of its acts being female or non-binary, compared to only 30 per cent this year.

4. Boardmasters – 31 per cent

Not only do Boardmasters has a low percentage of female and non-binary acts, but all three of its main headliners were male.

3. Reading and Leeds festival – 33 per cent

Reading and Leeds festival have more than doubled its percentage of female acts in their line-up, with it jumping from 14 per cent in 2021. However, all three headliners this year are male.

2. Camp Bestival – 35 per cent

Camp Bestival only had 48 acts this year, whilst still doing better than other festivals Camp Bestival still isn’t at the 50/50 mark.

1. Glastonbury – 53 per cent

Amazing from Glastonbury having more female and non-binary than male artists in its line-up. Hopefully this is continuing trend and not a one-off, as last year the festival only had 38 per cent.

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