Jess B is the answer to our music festival problems
Jess B is the answer to our music festival problems
Why local promoters need to take a few more risks.
Right, let’s get into this. Last summer, which feels like it was at least eight summers ago, I staggered from one music festival to the next treating each like it was my last chance in a very long time to get sunburnt and listen to loud music in a grass field full of strangers far from home.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but thanks to Covid-19, that was exactly the case.
I saw absolutely everything I could: Tyler, the Creator and YBN Cordae at Bay Dreams in Nelson, The 1975 and Marlon Williams at Laneway in Albert Park, Lizzo and Brockhampton at Fomo in West Auckland. When I wasn’t at festivals, I was at gigs: Tool, The Pixies, Wiki, Liam Gallagher, and - ugh - U2.
Did I mention the only reason I did this was because for the first time in 20 years, I was unemployed? No regrets. Thoroughly recommend. (Hit me up if you need some work done I need the $$ lol).
Out of every amazing act that I managed to cram into my summer of slumming it, one stood out amongst all the others. She wasn’t a headliner, she wasn’t a big name. In fact, she was on the smallest stage at one of the smallest festivals I went to.
At Laneway, around 4pm, Kiwi rapper Jess B emerged on that tiny stage crammed onto a road that splits the University of Auckland campus in two (the one most Laneway punters don’t even know is there) and spent the next two hours blowing my freaking mind.
For the first hour, she ripped through her growing catalogue of rap bangers, proving she’s amongst the most exciting new talents to emerge from New Zealand’s very deep hip-hop bench. I had to take a break, but when I came back, she was still going, helming a Diplo-style dance party full of Caribbean club anthems that felt both educational and like a total freaking party.
Clearly, after a two-hour performance in which she never seemed to tire, Jess B is ready for better stages and bigger crowds. I could give you more evidence, like how she she swoops in and steals the show on this cut from Kiwi rap supergroup BLKCITY, and same again on this …
… but by now, I think you get my point. Jess B rules. So why am I talking about a single festival performance that seems like a lifetime ago?
You can probably guess. Yesterday, Bay Dreams, the country’s biggest music festival by some margin and one I’ve written extensively about, released its line-up for 2021, and almost immediately got absolutely smashed for it.
Most of it seems to have stemmed from this Photoshop job, which removed all of the male acts and left just seven names on the poster.
Put like that, it’s plainly obvious there’s a problem. It’s been an issue for a while. I remember writing about it back when I had a job (again, pay me big $$ plz lol) and everyone agreed sexism went right through the music industry, starting with record labels and continuing through radio stations and the media. Music festivals were just the most visible entity to point the finger at.
So I don’t think it’s fair to single out Bay Dreams - they’ve had major female acts before, like Halsey and Cardi B. It’s a festival that bases its line-up around international acts, and right now, they can’t book any. Competing festivals - like Rhythm & Vines, Northern Bass and Laneway, which are yet to release their line-ups - may have locked many local acts into exclusive deals.
Besides, Rhythm & Alps released its line-up last week and was also a bit of a sausage-fest, but didn’t seem to get anywhere near the same negativity.
I’m not here to tell promoters to book more female acts. That should be obvious. But I would like to see promoters taking a few more risks. If every line-up in the foreseeable future is going to be some version of Wellington’s Homegrown festival, we’re going to need to grow a few more local headliners to fill them out.
To do that means giving younger, less experienced acts a chance. That’s going to require promoters to take a punt and mix it up. We know Shihad and Six60 and Shapeshifter and Fat Freddy’s Drop can headline a show. But what about The Beths? Eno x Dirty? SWIDT? Church & AP? Baynk? Paige? Valleyside Boys?
And Jess B? Hell, someone give her her own music festival. She could probably play the whole damn thing on her own.