SOMERSET, England (CelebrityAccess) Emily Eavis, the daughter of Michael Eavis and the person who now runs the Glastonbury festival, says that she is still having trouble with some men in the music industry who insist on talking to her father despite her taking over responsibility for the event.
Eavis, 40, has been booking acts at Glastonbury for half of her life had has been many times the only woman in meetings. Her father, now 83, co-created the festival at the family’s Worthy Farm in Somerset.
“The live music world has been so male-dominated,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. “I go to meetings with just tables of men. Some were great, and some just refuse to accept that they had to deal with me.”
Eavis spoke days before the start of this year’s event. She said that she is working on creating an equal gender balance of performers after the Guardian reported in 2015 that the lineup was 86 percent male.
“We are working toward 50/50. Some years it’s 60/40. It’s a challenge for us and we’ve really taken it on and I’m always totally conscious everyday that the gender balance should be right,” she said, adding, “Every day when I’m booking I’m thinking about that and cajoling stage bookers to be onboard with it. Some of them have been here a long time so it’s a little bit of hustle. But we’re getting there.”
In 2009, she told the Observer, “People didn’t take it seriously coming from a girl, especially as not only was I a girl, but a ‘daughter of’ … but my dad has in no way given this to me in a nicely wrapped package. He has challenged me, made sure I can do it.”
This year’s lineup includes Kyle Minogue, Miley Cyrus, Janet Jackson, The Killers, The Cure and Stormzy.
h/t The Guardian
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