Kendal Calling Joins Festivals In Line-Up Gender Equality Pledge

26 February 2018, 16:10 | Updated: 28 February 2018, 10:09

The Cumbrian festival joins the likes of Liverpool Sound City and The Great Escape in pledging to achieve a 50/50 gender balance across their line-ups by 2022.

45 international music festivals and conferences have pledged to tackle gender inequality across their bills by 2022.

In a pioneering move, PRS Foundation’s International Keychange initiative has has seen events and organisers across the globe promise to move towards achieving or maintaining a 50/50 gender balance across their festivals in two year's time (including live line-ups, conferences and commissions).

Among those participating are the likes of Kendal Calling, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City and Blissfields.

Emma Zillmann from Kendal Calling, Blue Dot and Off The Record said: "An initiative like Keychange provides clear goals and measures for festivals who are already committed to presenting audiences with more diverse line-ups. By giving discrimination an ultimatum, we're ensuring that equality will eventually be the norm, and we're very proud for Kendal Calling, Blue Dot and Off The Record to be a part of the progress.”

Kendal Calling - which takes place on Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District this July - will see Catfish & The Bottlemen, The Libertines ad Run DMC headline in 2018, while also playing host to the likes of The Wailers, Pale Waves and Black Honey.

See all the participating festivals below:

53 Degrees North (England), Aldeburgh Festival (England), Blissfields (England), Bluedot (England), Borealis (Norway), BreakOut West (Canada), By:Larm (Norway), Canadian Music Week (Canada), Cheltenham Jazz Festival (England), Cheltenham Music Festival (England), Eurosonic Noorderslag (Netherlands), FOCUS Wales (Wales), Granada Experience (Spain), Hard Working Class Heroes (Ireland), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (England), A2IM Indie Week (USA), BBC Music Introducing Stages (UK), Katowice JazzArt Festival (Poland), Kendal Calling (England), Liverpool International Music Festival (England), Liverpool Sound City (England), Manchester Jazz Festival (England), Midem (France), Norwich Sound and Vision (England), North By North East (Canada), NYC Winter Jazzfest (USA), Off The Record (England), Oslo World (Norway), Pop-Kultur (Germany), BBC Proms (England), Roundhouse Rising (England), Spitalfields Music (England), Sŵn (Wales), Trondheim Calling (Norway), Waves Vienna (Austria), Westway LAB (Portugal), Wide Days (Scotland), Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival (France)