Volt rates highly in international gender study

The results of a study recently conducted by DJ-network Female Pressure rated Volt 2012 and Volt 2013 highly in regards to equality.

“We have put extra effort into increasing the number of female artists. We haven’t yet reached our goal of 50/50, but are naturally very proud to be doing so well in comparison to other festivals. Female Pressure’s work is very important and a major inspiration for our own festival planning, so it’s a big deal to have their acknowledgement,” says Patric Kiraly producer of Volt festival at Konsert & Kongress.

The Austrian DJ and producer Susanne “Electric Indigo” Kirchmayr founded female Pressure in 1998. The objective was to create both a network for and database of women working with electronic music. The aim is to make it easier for female DJ’s and artists to get the attention of booking agents worldwide. Kirchmayr also wanted to challenge the common perception that “there just aren’t that many women in electronic music”.

The study is available in its entirety at http://femalepressure.wordpress.com. Out of 56 randomly chosen festivals in the study, Volt comes out on top with both the 2012 and 2013 editions of the festival.

This year Volt has booked 7 female artists, of which 2 are live artists and the other 5 are DJ’s. With 11 male artists booked, the festival is offering 39% women and 61% men. By way of comparison, the Austrian festival Ars Electronica 2012, rated third in the study, had 24% female bookings.

The consensus of Female Pressure’s study is that significantly more men then women are being booked. Some festivals have none or at least very few female artists in their line-ups. In an article about the study published in the May 2013 edition of The Wire magazine, the author begins by explaining that it is a male-dominated genre. Farther down, a booking agent at a festival without any women in the line-up says that it is difficult finding female artists equally qualified as their male counterparts.

“It’s a tedious and lazy attitude. Men dominate the business, which requires more effort to find female artists. This is not due to quality, but rather to it being a genre dominated by men. The female artists and DJ’s we book are just a talented as their male colleagues,” says Patric Kiraly.

Press contact: Patric Kiraly, Uppsala Konsert & Kongress, 018-7279032, patric.kiraly@ukk.se

Booked artists, Volt 2013:
Women: Holly Herndon (US), Kyoka (JPN), Skirt (US), Fatima al Qadiri (US), Maya Lourenco (SWE), Towlie (SWE), Elin Franzén (SWE),

Men: Model 500 (US), Shackleton (UK), Raime (UK), Mika Vainio & Joachim Nordwall (FI/SWE), TM404 (SWE), Taragana Pyjarama (DK), Baba Stiltz (SWE), Johan Östman (SWE), Sean Hugo & Oscar (SWE), Googol Plex (SWE), Håkan Lidbo (SWE).

Location: Uppsala Konsert & Kongress Time: June 8th, 20:00-3:00 For the festival program, information about tickets and night buses from UKK to Stockholm visit www.voltfestivalen.se