Polish Girl has accused the Toledo Beat festival – held on May 10 and 11 – of trying to “silence” her protest over the lack of women on the lineup for its latest edition.
On stage, Claudia Zuazo, the female member of Niña Polaca, commented that “I love seeing so many aunts in the audience, compensating for the few that are on the poster,” a comment that was received with applause from the audience. Of all the artists confirmed on the Toledo Beat lineup, the majority are male, including the four main groups.
Toledo Beat's Instagram post of the Niña Polaca concert includes images only of its male components, and Zuazo believes that Toledo Beat may have wanted to punish her by choosing not to show her on their social networks.
Therefore, Zuazo Has published a letter in which she draws attention to the problem of the lack of women in festivals using her experience at Toledo Beat as an example. In the text, Zuazo accuses Toledo Beat of turning a deaf ear to his complaint and of simply “having contacted our office to complain about my comment, calling it populist and stating that it was out of place and unnecessary.” Zuazo argues that “it is difficult enough to be in the music industry as a woman and to be taken seriously, to be seen as an equal, to truly think that you are comparable to a man they admire, without trying to do so on top of it.” silence when we decide to speak about any of these injustices.
In the letter, Zuazo emphasizes that “we know very well that there is no shortage of women in music”, so there is “no excuse” for them to continue to be missing from the posters. Therefore, he asks that festival programmers review this aspect when hiring groups and putting together their posters. “Let's say the directors are not aware of this and do not know how important it is,” adds the artist. «I simply want you to know that until this happens, until we have been seeing each other for years with the same frequency with which we have always seen men, we will never stop being the exception and the surprise for the viewer. It will never cease to be surprising to see a woman doing something music-related that is associated with men, like doing a guitar solo or playing the drums. We need to see women in that situation, in that position of power, to feel that we are reaching that equality that many people think is not worth fighting for. And festivals play a key role in this.