![GO GIRLS: Nkechi Anele from Saskwatch getting the crowd fired up at last year's Yours and Owls festival in Stuart Park. The 2015 audience was around 55 per cent female. Picture: Adam McLean GO GIRLS: Nkechi Anele from Saskwatch getting the crowd fired up at last year's Yours and Owls festival in Stuart Park. The 2015 audience was around 55 per cent female. Picture: Adam McLean](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/UPAcJLQNVGftX3BUDy544C/03ae94b2-f875-4345-9331-0a07114cef66.jpg/r0_9_4078_2284_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Gender inequality is still rife in parts of the music industry, but not in Wollongong.
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This year’s Yours and Owls Festival is getting praised for its 50/50 split of male and female musicians, unlike a Canberra festival which has copped a lot of flack.
When Spilt Milk released their lineup on social media at the beginning of June it caused a stir on social media due to just one female name amongst 15 male performers.
Promoters explained online that they had a wishlist of women they wanted but were unavailable or couldn’t confirm they could play the December 3 gig.
Meanwhile Yours and Owls co-organiser Ben Tillman said it was unintentional on their part for the even split of gender, but said inequality shouldn’t be an issue because there is so much amazing female talent.
“Bec Sandridge is testament to that, she’s doing really well and she’s a girl,” he said.
“I’d say there there’s probably still a lot more male bands than female bands [in the Illawarra] … but that’s not to say the talent’s not out there because it definitely is.”
Earlier in June, Tillman was involved in organising another mini-festival in Wollongong, Daytime is Young, which had a 100 per cent female lineup.
Stanwell Park singer-songwriter Sandridge was one of the performers and said gigs like that need to be pushed more often because gender inequality is still a problem.
“I think inequality is definitely there, anyone who’s says it’s not are fooling themselves,” she said.
In the past Sandridge was met by “you can’t have more than one female on the bill” from managers when she wanted to have friends, who were female, as support acts.
She said she had many face-to-face encounters like this, but said being self-managed for four years left herself more open to it.
Now that her star is on the rise her booking agent and manager get to deal with the harshness and she can focus on her music.
Other females that will rock out across two stages at North Wollongong’s Stuart Park for Y&O include Vera Blue, Thelma Plum, Ladyhawke, DJ and Triple J presenter KLP, Little May and more.
The process of securing musicians involved organisers working out who might be available and then give their wishlists to booking agents.
The result, quite a diverse lineup for 2016 with many Illawarra and South Coast artists, up and coming acts, plus old favourites like COG and The Living End.
Tillman let slip some other exciting things will be happening in the week before the festival, but didn’t want to give away too much yet.