Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis has been described as a “massive supporter” of female artists after criticism over the festival’s all-male Pyramid stage headliners.
The festival faced a backlash in March when it announced that three male acts – Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John – would headline the main stage this year.
A prominent female musician, widely believed to be Taylor Swift, had been due to perform but pulled out because of a change in her touring commitments.
Critics said the popular American rapper Lizzo should have been given top billing as she was due to perform in the slot before Guns N’ Roses on Saturday night.
However, Eavis said the headline position had already been allocated by the time Lizzo confirmed her appearance, and said the music industry was failing to generate enough viable female headliners.
Sharleen Spiteri, the frontwoman of Scottish rockers Texas, declared Eavis a “massive supporter” of female musicians as her band took to the Pyramid stage on Friday.
She added: “Not because she’s ticking a fucking box to have them on the stages. She’s put us on these stages because she thinks we’re fucking amazing, so thank you, Emily. We love you,” she said, to huge cheers.
The majority of acts on Glastonbury’s two biggest stages this year, the Pyramid and the Other, are led by men – but organisers insist that the gender split is roughly 50-50, taking into account the hundreds of artists performing across the festival.
Of the 21 performers on the Pyramid stage, 12 are fronted by men, while eight are led by women and one, Amadou & Mariam, are a male-female duo.
On the Other stage, 16 of the 24 acts are male-fronted, compared with just eight led by women.
Fans who spoke to the Observer on Saturday did not seem overly concerned by the male-dominated Pyramid headliners, with many insisting they had not even spotted the gender imbalance.
“I hadn’t noticed it was all-male,” said Charlotte Schofield, 32, waiting for the music to begin in scorching temperatures at the Other stage.
“I think it’s just luck of the draw maybe. I can’t say it offends me in any way. I think they’re very supportive of women in general – Lana Del Rey is headlining this stage later.”
Eavis said in the Guardian in March that she was “entirely focused” on striking a gender balance, adding that the music industry needed to invest in more female musicians to create future headliners: “We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board.”
Soaking up the sun in front of the Other stage, Annette Burnham, 58, said it would have been better to have a female Pyramid headliner, adding: “It is just one stage but I get the point that it is quite male-dominated.”
However, she said the Pyramid was only “a tiny part of the whole Glastonbury experience” and that it suggested a shortage of female-fronted acts big enough to perform to a 100,000-strong festival crowd.
“You have to look at if the pot is bigger for males than females at the minute but that is changing,” she said.
