Five years ago, the festival industry, prone to hand-wringing about where younger headline acts might spring from, pledged to redress the gender imbalance across their lineups. Strides have been made, notably at Latitude and Glastonbury, with a handful of smaller festivals either achieving parity or narrowing the gap substantially. A recent survey, however, found that in the UK this summer, a paltry 13% of festival headliners were female, which is just one of the many things in the world right now that makes you want to head-butt a bass bin in impotent fury.
It’s not like an indie rock phenomenon hasn’t been snowballing right under festival bookers’ noses. This summer, she has already wowed crowds at Glastonbury and Latitude. But waiting for her closeup is Phoebe Bridgers, a four-time Grammy-nominated artist who has just swiftly sold out four nights at Brixton’s generously proportioned Academy (that’s in the region of 19,600 tickets) as part of an extended European tour that included opening for the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park. Her merch queue clogs up the entire foyer, upstairs and down. Her singing – winsome, numinous, but tough at the same time – is often drowned out by the word-perfect crowd.
