In a recent interview, Gary Richards of Hard Events spoke out about a problem which is none too common in our world of dance music events, regardless of their size; the lack of female presence. As per HARD event line ups over the past half decade, a shocking 8% of the numerous performers are female! It’s quite shocking, yet easy enough to realize that these figures don’t stray too far apart. Be it any event of your choice, female performers continue to be a minority, whichever part of the world you’re from.

However, Richards’ intends to change this statistic, rather incredulously. He says, “I have a concept for a show that’s all girl performers…It’s not a 70,000 person event. But I do see more females coming up and…I’m definitely going to do it in 2014.”  That’s definitely something to look forward to, female artists are no slouches compared to their majority counterparts, and there’s quite a pick to choose from, Annie Mac, Maya Jane Coles, Nervo are just a few off the top of my head. But Richards absolutely sticks his foot in his mouth when he says, “The key to it is I’ve got to be able to get them (the performers) all in the same place at one time. The thing is I can’t pay them as much.“

Let’s summarize for you. The positive is, Richards wants to throw an all female EDM event in 2014, because he recognizes their talent. At the same time, he can’t (read: doesn’t) want to pay them as much? Does Richards think they wouldn’t attract the crowds he needs to gain massive revenue? That would seem extremely plausible. Had he been booking femme fatale from the very beginning, crowds would learn to trust in his judgement and revenue might not have been an issue either.

Without any doubt, any all-female event would be nothing short of wondrous, but just because there are females performing behind the decks, doesn’t mean they should get compensated the same way male performers are done so. An excuse to avoid greater compensation on the bias of gender is nothing short of sexism and blasphemy.