Wireless have teamed up with Rinse FM to curate an all-female line-up for this year’s Smirnoff House stage.
The music extravaganza held at London’s Finsbury Park, between July 6 and July 8, has added 25 extra female acts – including Lady Leshurr, Quay Dash, Bad Gyal, Paigey Cakey, Trillary Banks, Barely Legal and Work It DJs – over the three days, after the festival received backlash for the lack of women represented on the bill.
The initiative is all part of the Equalising Music campaign, which Smirnoff launched last year in a bid to tackle the issue across the music industry head on.
Sam Salameh, Head of Smirnoff, commented: "This year at Wireless, we’re partnering with Rinse FM to curate our Smirnoff House line-up with the best in female talent to make a difference where it matters the most.
"Rinse FM helped create the genres that are thriving at Wireless and have many female success stories – some of which will be bringing the good times to the Smirnoff House."
Lily Allen was among those to express her disappointment at there only being three female musicians announced in the first announcement.
The ‘Not Fair’ hitmaker retweeted an edited image of the festival’s poster with all the male artists set to perform removed, leaving only the names of Mabel, Cardi B and Lisa Mercedez.
She captioned the post: "The struggle is real."
Lily added: "That wireless have booked 3 women over 3 days of festival.
"And people wonder why women in Music aren’t coming forward with their #metoo experiences. Money is power. (sic)"
A few hours later, she wrote: "It does state that more acts are to be announced, so hopefully more female acts will be added."
In addition to Mabel, Cardi and Lisa, Ms. Banks and Raye are also set to perform next weekend.
The Smirnoff House stage will be hosted by two leading voices in UK radio: Beats 1 anchor Julie Adenuga, and Rinse FM Drive time host Emerald.
Wireless announce all-famle Smirnoff House line-up
