Quebec music festival facing backlash for not including female artists, headliner pulls out
Global News
Bilodeau said Wednesday that not only artists, but everyone in the music industry, including festival organizers, have a role to play to increase female representation.
A Quebec summer music festival with an all-male lineup has lost at least one big-name act and is being criticized for ignoring female artists.
The backlash started online and intensified after popular singer-songwriter Emile Bilodeau announced he had dropped out of the 16th edition of Festi-Plage de Cap-d’Espoir, on Quebec’s Gaspé peninsula.
Bilodeau said Wednesday that not only artists, but everyone in the music industry, including festival organizers, have a role to play to increase female representation. He said he couldn’t take part in an event that didn’t share his values.
“I work with amazing women and learned my craft from the best,” Bilodeau said in a statement on Facebook. “In fact, it is thanks to them that I am the artist, and above all, the man that I am today.”
Festi-Plage, which will be held on July 27-30, is scheduled to showcase a variety of musical genres, including Quebec folk, rap and funk music. The 14 featured acts are entirely male — except Les Cowboys Fringants, a four-person band with a female member.
Festival organizer Ghislain Pitre said on Thursday he was disappointed by Bilodeau’s reaction and surprised by the criticism.
“We didn’t see it coming,” Pitre said in an interview. “We have Les Cowboys Fringants; we’re not 100 per cent male-only.” He said one of the artists, comedian P-A Methot, is also putting together a performance that will include women.
Pitre, however, said he was unable to find a single female musician or female-majority band available that had a musical style aligned with the festival.
