THE majority of Scotland’s leading summer festivals – including TRNSMT, Eden and Belladrum – have given no headline slots to solo female artists in the past two years, The Ferret has found.
In total, just five solo women headlined main stages this summer, according to our exclusive analysis.
Only three had headliner slots on main stages in 2025. The summer festival circuit, which is now drawing to a close, brings hundreds of thousands of people together every year and is estimated to contribute hundreds of millions to the economy.
Due to rising costs, the industry has been under growing pressure, with several big events cancelled this year.
But festivals have also been subject to long-standing criticism about the lack of prominent female artists on their bills.
We found that some progress had been made in terms of gender equality. Several Scottish festivals had around 40% women, non-binary and trans artists on their line-ups in 2025 and 2026, and some female musicians told us they feel better supported and welcomed.
But others told us that while gender balances on summer line-ups were improving, the industry still had “a way to go”. Every Scottish summer festival analysed had more men on the line-up than women, except one festival in 2025.
The majority of festivals did not respond to requests for comment. But some admitted that the issue was a concern and said action was being taken to drive progress. One claimed it had to balance the desire for diverse bills with the need to book big names that would sell tickets.
The Ferret looked at the 2025 and 2026 programmes for 11 music festivals across Scotland including TRNSMT, Belladrum, Eden Festival, Kelburn Garden Party, Back Doune the Rabbit Hole, The Reeling, Skye Live Festival, Party at the Palace, Terminal V, FLY Festival and Hebridean Celtic Festival (HebCelt).
We found gender representation was varied. Only eight per cent of artists at Back Doune the Rabbit Hole were women-only in 2025. However, at HebCelt that year, almost half were women (46%).
Male solo artists made up 50% or more of the programme at more than half of festivals, with the rest of the programme being mixed bands or female artists. Solo women, on the other hand, did not make 50% or over at any Scottish summer festival.
But it was in headline slots that women were particularly absent.
TRNSMT has attracted controversy over the years for its consistently all-male headliners. The past two years were no exception with 50 Cent, Biffy Clyro and Snow Patrol headlining in 2025 and Richard Ashcroft, Kasabian and Lewis Capaldi topping the bill in 2026.
No women topped the bill in either year. Since launching in 2017, only one woman has been part of a headline act at TRNSMT – Pulp keyboard player Candida Doyle in 2023.
But this was not the only festival to programme all-male headline line-ups. In total, almost two-thirds (64%) of the festivals we looked at had no solo women artists closing the night in 2026 though some had mixed-gender bands. TRNSMT, Eden and Party at the Palace booked only solo male acts to top the bill. In 2025, nine out of 11 festivals we analysed had no solo female artists headlining.
We also found that the vast majority of festival directors and lead programmers were men, with those roles held by women at only two festivals. Those who replied to The Ferret’s requests for comment, such as Kelburn Garden Party, said their teams were well balanced, or even skewed in favour of women. Women, Kelburn added, were also booked as guest curators.
Kelburn’s Chris Knight said the festival thought hard about diversity in terms of gender, race and sexuality. He added: “Our festival management team has a balance of four females and five males. Our artistic production, crew co-ordination, box office, artist liaison managers are all female.”
Chay Woodman, the press officer for Eden Festival, and one of the bookers for Doune the Rabbit Hole, said that in his experience, “most of the festival background team are women”. He also said the Doune stage he curated last month “was pretty much all women including a female stage manager and engineer”, with his female cousins acting as “stand-in artist liaisons”. The headliner on the stage, however, was male.
Female and non-binary artists who spoke to The Ferret claimed some in the industry were scared to speak up about festival organisers who failed to take the issue seriously because they were afraid of the impact it might have on their careers.
One claimed “nepotism” in the industry had led senior men to hire too many others who were similar in outlook and “looked like them”, known as affinity bias.
Scottish singer Tamara Schlesinger, chief executive of the Hen Hoose music collective, has previously spoken out against the lack of headliners at TRNSMT, which is run by DF Concerts, telling the BBC she was “deeply disappointed, though not surprised” to see no women or non-binary artists among the headliners there this summer.
She said then that DF Concerts initiatives, such as Girls Girls Girls, which gives acts the opportunity to perform at King Tut’s in Glasgow, could risk “feeling tokenistic when they are not backed by systemic, measurable commitment to equity at the highest levels”.
Schlesinger told The Ferret: “When we spoke up about DF, a lot of people [messaged] us saying: ‘Thank you so much. I can’t say anything because I’m so afraid for my career.’”
She claimed that the promoter had a huge influence on the sector. As well as running TRNSMT and owning King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, it programmes the Summer Sessions in Glasgow’s Bellahouston park and Country to Country at the city’s Hydro, Scotland’s largest music venue. It claims to book 46% of gigs there and is owned by global giant Live Nation.
A recent exposé about the practices of DF Concerts by The Glasgow Bell featured testimony by bands who claimed they are expected to promote their own gigs and sell the tickets, sometimes making as little as £30 between all their members.
Its chief executive, Geoff Ellis, commented on its Instagram page: “Pathetic, poorly researched piece of utter pish (as well you know!) You should rename this bollox The Glasgow Bellend.”
DF has not signed The Keychange 50:50 pledge, an international initiative encouraging festivals, venues and organisations to commit to working towards an equal gender balance in their programming, staffing and operations.
“Actually, all they’re signing up for is to try for an equal lineup,” Schlesinger said. “So if they’re not even willing to sign up to try, then that’s quite a strong message.”
DF did not respond to our request for comment.
Of the festivals we looked at, Skye Live, the Reeling and HebCelt had all signed. Other Scottish signatories include Celtic Connections and Glasgow International Jazz Festival.
Many festivals did not respond to requests for comment about why they had not signed up, but Kelburn Garden Party’s Knight told us it had no plans to sign “because our programming approach at Kelburn is led first and foremost by artistic style and merit”.
“Within this, we aim to achieve as best a balance as possible, but putting an official target as the headline goal would complicate an already difficult and time-consuming task,” he added.
Some said the fact that fewer women featured on line-ups meant it was difficult to develop or build audiences, which helped explain the lack of female headline acts at Scottish festivals.
Michelle Shields, HebCelt’s director and artistic programmer, said: “Headliner slots are sought after by artists as a sign of success and a following. From a festival point of view, many of your audience may decide to buy tickets based on a headliner.”
In 2025, despite their near-equal line-up, two out of three headliners were male solo acts. In 2026, two headliners were solo male acts, and the third was a band with one female member.
“Musically, it takes time to build your audience to make it to those much-sought-after headline spots,” Shields added. “We need to do all we can as an industry to encourage diversity in order to break those habits.”
Yet she believes change is coming. “We certainly have a much more diverse industry than we had 20 years ago and this can only improve,” Shields says. “The line I always come back to is ‘you cannot be what you cannot see’. An equal, diverse and inclusive line-up will inspire future generations and progress our industry in a positive way.”
Some claimed it’s still too often left up to female-led collectives to find gender-inclusive acts. Polka Dot Disco Club is a FLINTA club night – a German term meaning Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans and Agender, used by many in the industry.
It was founded by Glasgow-based DJ and producer Frankie Elyse, who hosts takeovers at clubs and festivals across Scotland, exclusively booking women, non-binary and trans artists.
She said that while there was still work to do, the scene was increasingly inclusive. “I’ve seen women DJs get headline slots on a local level, which they wouldn’t necessarily have got 10 years ago,” Elyse added.
Kelburn Garden Party is one of the more inclusive festivals we analysed, with women, non-binary and trans artists making up 37% of 2026’s line-up, while men and mixed acts made up the remaining 63%.
This year, it invited Polka Dot Disco Club to take over the Saloon Stage with a line-up of six FLINTA acts – however, it took place on the first night when the festival was only partially open.
Kelburn’s Chris Knight said: “We consider ourselves to be among the industry leaders in this regard, on a nationwide level. Overall we feel we have made good progress in recent years, but know there is always more to be done.”
Trad music has long been criticised for its lack of representation but Rising Trad band Dàna said there have been positive changes.
“I personally would say it’s a lot better than it used to be,” pianist Alex Wotherspoon told The Ferret. “But there’s always going to be work that needs done.”
“There are so many women behind the scenes,” added Eleanor Tout, the band’s whistle player. “Having these people and platforms that celebrate women in Trad is so nice to have.”
Katie Goh, manager of Engender’s equal media and culture centre, said she was “disappointed” by The Ferret’s findings.
“While it is positive that some progress has been made, the continuing lack of women in headline slots points to a systemic, gendered problem. Women’s contribution to Scottish music is being severely undervalued,” she said.
