A level playing field

Largely women-free line-ups have been the norm ever since festivals began but are becoming increasingly indefensible with each passing year. With the likes of Reading/Leeds showing depressingly little interest in remedying the situation on their own initiative, it was evident that something more needed to be done - so credit to the PRS Foundation for proactively establishing the Keychange scheme, which aims to establish a 50/50 gender split for line-ups by 2022, and to the likes of Swn for signing up to it.

Keychange's stated objective is to "accelerate change and create a better more inclusive music industry for present and future generations", and it will hopefully do so in conjunction with another PRS Foundation scheme, ReBalance. Effecting serious and long-term change is a tall order, perhaps, but this is a significant step in the right direction nevertheless.