At the festival Opptur in Bodø, female artists are, to put it mildly, in the minority. There are 21 artists at the festival. Only one of them is female. And that’s Natalia Barbin. Male-heavy festival Natalia Barbin is often the only female DJ when she performs. She was also at this weekend’s festival in Bodø. – I think it’s really fun that they book me. But I have many good female DJ colleagues who also deserve to be booked. – I think men are a bit more aggressive when it comes to marketing themselves, says Natalia Barbin Photo: Per Christian Hestnæs Barbin is experiencing that more and more women are choosing to become a DJ. She encourages festival organizers in Norway to do a little better research to find more female DJs. – I think it’s about doing your homework. Sit down and spend a little more time finding female artists or DJs who fit in. Because there are many. Barbin calls himself a marketing soul. And believes that more women can benefit from getting better at marketing themselves. – Why do you think there are so few female DJs who get booked? – I think men are a bit more aggressive when it comes to marketing themselves. And talk loudly about the fact that they are a DJ and want to play. Natalia Barbin is the only female artist to see at this year’s Opttur Festival. Photo: Kasper Holgersen / news Barbin believes that men are better at using their network to get gigs, while women, on the other hand, can be a little more modest. At the same time, she believes that male DJs can have an advantage in that they are often booked by men: – Most festivals are often run by men. So all my contacts who book me are men, so there may be a connection. – Representation works Managing Director of the interest organization Norwegian Culture Organizers, Tone Østerdal believes that the proportion of female artists on festival stages around Norway is too low. – What do you think about the fact that Opttur only has one female artist, and 20 men? – In general, it sounds a bit thin. But it is also typically one of the genres where women are underrepresented. – It is not the case that women are worse at creating and producing music than men, says general manager of Norwegian cultural organizers, Tone Østerdal. Photo: Ellen Lorenzen Østerdal says that they see the same problem at, for example, metal festivals. There are few women who are performers in the genre, which makes it difficult to book them. – It is not so easy when there are so few women on the programme. It becomes a self-reinforcing negative spiral. – In order to recruit more women, it is an advantage to be able to see other women performing similar music. Having female role models helps, quite simply. Earlier this year, Vårt Land did a count of female artists on the concert stages this summer. Only 146 out of 537 places on the festival’s posters are made up of female artists. That is, only female solo artists and bands consisting of only women. However, it does not appear to be a Norwegian phenomenon. One in ten headliners at major British festivals this summer are women. This is shown by a study carried out by the BBC. Tone Østerdal believes that genres, where women are underrepresented, should work purposefully to recruit more young girls and women. – It is not the case that women are worse at creating and producing music than men. – We know that representation works. Once in a while you need to see someone similar to yourself perform, before you believe that you can manage within the genre itself. Østerdal is clear that the recruitment process should start early. And want to be able to have a greater breadth of genres at, for example, cultural schools. But the recruitment to the niche genres is not something that a single festival or environment can take responsibility for: – At the same time, the festivals, which are an important dissemination platform, should take responsibility for wider representation, and try to improve it. Timeliness determines Ørjan Strand is festival manager at Opptur. He believes that the lack of gender balance is purely coincidental. Timeliness and availability are by far the most important for festival director Ørjan Strand. Photo: Private – We have tried to book several, but some have dropped out. According to Strand, the festival has some criteria for which artists are relevant… – We look at genre, topicality, availability and price. Furthermore, he points out that the availability of the desired female artists has not been great enough. – Gender is obviously not one of the criteria, says the festival manager. Why do you think it is important to have female artists at such a festival? – When we book, it is the topicality that decides, we strive to get more women onto the poster.
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– Women are not worse than men – news Nordland
