Strawberry Fields Stoush With Punters Following Backlash To All Male Line-Up Announce

Having revealed their first batch of acts late last week, which was consequently criticised for not including any women, Victorian boutique festival Strawberry Fields have been engaging in debate with a slew of punters through their Facebook page.

After a punter posted a sarcastic "Cool all-male lineup so far bros" to the page, Strawberry Fields' female senior booker jumped in to offer an explanation of sorts.

"When we were booking the first round this year we looked a bunch of major female talent - in the end all of them were either unavailable, outside our budget, or not the best musical fit given what else we had confirmed. When we were looking at those acts though, the inspiration wasn't their gender, it was their music.

"That's what I find really interesting about this debate, I mean, I'm female and I'm not about to discriminate against my own gender but is this really about gender or about music?" she asked.

She went on to state that for Strawberry Fields, the music comes first and foremost. "It's great that people are finally vibing more on female talent, and there a lot more out there these days, but as soon as we start acting like we need to fill a gender quota, the music comes second."

As with all social media debates, her statement didn't go unargued with dozens of punters questioning the festival's ethos regarding gender diversity. Strawberry Fields took time to answer to many of them.

To a critic saying, "Crap response, if you think booking female artists is tokenism then you are totally out of touch with the huge pool of female talent available," Strawberry Fields replied, "Thinking that booking female artists is tokenism is completely wrong - it's also not what she was saying at all."

They also jumped back at the numerous white males criticising Strawberry Fields' statement — "A white guy calling a female booker tacitly implicit in male dominance because she booked music she likes definitely sounds insulting."

"We don't have a huge office and dozens of employees. We also don't have anything to hide. This is a tiny family of people who work bloody hard," Strawberry Fields continued. "What you read was an upfront and honest response to this issue from the person who most involved, who wanted to give you personal insight into exactly her thought process. If you think her having the confidence to speak up and tell you from the heart what happened is scapegoating, then there is probably nothing we could ever say to please you."

Buzz act Tash Sultana also jumped in to Strawberry Fields' defense, to state "To be honest the whole line up actually hasn't dropped yet, It isn't all male, I'm playing too, My name's Tash Sultana". 

Read the whole comment thread below.