The Big Moon say festival bosses not working towards gender balanced line-ups are “full of shit”

The Big Moon have branded festival bosses who aren’t trying to work towards booking gender balanced line-ups as “full of shit” at the NME Awards 2020.

Speaking on the red carpet during this week’s event at London’s Brixton Academy, the four-piece backed up a host of artists calling for 50/50 gender splits on festival line-ups.

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“It’s incredibly important,” guitarist Soph Nathan said to NME, with vocalist Jules Jackson adding that festival bosses who aren’t trying to work towards gender balanced line-ups are “full of shit”.

“Our society is sexist, and that is reflected in all industries,” bassist Celia Archer added. It’s not surprising, [but] it’s disappointing in a creative industry. We’re just doing what we do and hopefully it’ll keep changing.”

Across the NME Awards 2020, many artists backed the call for gender balanced festival line-ups. Billy Bragg said we need to “aim for as near as possible 50/50 as we can get,” while Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis demanded that “it’s got to happen.” The comments come in the wake of The 1975’s Matty Healy pledging to only play festivals that have gender balanced line-ups.

• The NME Awards 2020: Watch the best bits in three raucous minutes

Returning to the O2 Academy Brixton and hosted by Katherine Ryan and Julie Adenuga, the NME Awards celebrates the best of the last 12 months in music. See the full winners list here.

Head to NME.com/awards for all the news and action from the big event.