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Lollapalooza criticized for lack of female headliners at 2018 festival

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Weeknd performs at Barclays Center in New York last October.

Lollapalooza got slammed on social media just minutes after posting its 2018 lineup once fans realized the event was sorely lacking female headliners.

The annual Chicago music festival’s announcement today boasted Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Jack White and Arctic Monkeys as its most popular headlining acts. It wasn’t until the fourth line of the festival announcement poster that a female artist was even mentioned — CHVRCHES, St. Vincent and Dua Lipa were among the first women to grace the poster.

Fans were quick to point out the festival’s unfair representation of women.

“Wow, it’s like they didn’t know any female musicians big enough in the world to headline …” one user wrote.

“#Lolla out here with no female artists in its top three lines of artists like they don’t know what century it is,” another added.

A third social media user wrote, “The names further down the #Lolla lineup are significantly more interesting than the headliners. Also, the festival’s glaring problems regarding women & non-binary representation CONTINUE.”

Travis Scott was listed fifth on the line-up for the event taking place Aug. 2 to 5, while St. Vincent was written considerably smaller in the fourth row.

“How does the first female act not come until the 4th line? ALL HEADLINERS and 3 lines of all dudes?? St. Vincent at the least should of been higher,” another Twitter user questioned. “Do better.”

There were more than 80 artists on the poster and only 18 were female.

Among the other female artists at Lolla 2018 are Camila Cabello, Tash Sultana, Rezz, Lykke Li, Alina Baraz, Billie Eilish, Kali Uchis, Lizzo, Daya, Jessie Ware, Bebe Rexha, Sabrina Claudio, Stars, Bomba Estereo — a majority of the women weren’t named until the lower second half of the poster.

In past years, Lolla, which was first started in 1991, headlined with mostly males, but in 2017 Lorde was one of the first-named headliners.

Her set was cut short because of a storm, leading social media users to question why she wasn’t brought back this year.

In 2016, Grimes, the singer-songwriter whose real name Claire Elise Boucher, was the first female headliner listed on that year’s poster, but she wasn’t mentioned until the third line. Florence and the Machine was mentioned third on the 2015 line-up, but the next female artist, Marina and the Diamonds, wasn’t mentioned until several lines later.

The 2018 Coachella festival takes a much different approach.

It leads with headliners The Weeknd, Beyonce and Eminem and also has women higher up in big, bold letters for each day, including SZA, St. Vincent, Haim and Cardi B.

New York’s Governor’s Ball in June has similar headliners: Jack White, Travis Scott and Eminem, but directly under the big names are female acts like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Halsey, Sylvan Esso and CHVRCHES.

Lollapalooza did not immediately respond to a Daily News request inquiring about the lack of female headliners or asking if Lorde was offered a slot at this summer’s festival.

Singer Ellie Goulding recently called out festivals for the lack of female representation while expressing that she is grateful to be included.

“Still so proud as a female artist to be headling and playing festivals around the world every single year. Thank you for continually believing in me. It always feels like a triumph to win so many people over who were waiting for a band,” the 30-year-old British musician wrote.

“Need to give myself credit sometimes as I’ve been doing this non stop for over seven years. I don’t see many females at these festivals.”

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