Press
Happy International Women’s Day || 8 March 2024
Happy International Women's Day! A special shout out to our inspiring courageous team, to our sister organisations, and to all who advocate for inclusion in the arts. @FairPlé, we invite participation from ALL. We are an inclusive, grass-roots organization founded in recognition of the true ethos of folk music: music by all, for all. Our thoughts are also with the women and girls who are faced with such injustice, discrimination and suffering in Gaza. We stand with our sisters in Palestine and advocate for an end to the Genocide that continues to be inflicted. Ní saoirse go saoirse na mBan agus ní saoirse na mBan go saoirse an Palaistíne.
Misogyny in Music, Women and Equalities Committee, House of Commons Report || 30 January 2024
Important report on misogyny and music finds: "Women working in the music industry face limitations in opportunity, a lack of support, gender discrimination and sexual harassment and assault as well as the persistent issue of unequal pay in a sector dominated by self-employment and gendered power imbalances. Despite increases in representation, these issues are endemic and are intensified for women faced with intersectional barriers, particularly racial discrimination."
Please read the full report and share.
FairPlé Festival Line-Up Challenge June–December 2022 || 12 July 2023.
It’s Festival Challenge time! When FairPlé was established in 2018, one of the first things we looked at was the gender balance of Irish traditional and folk festival line-ups. These line-ups provide a useful snapshot into the progress towards gender balance on our stages and in our performance spaces. Last year, we looked at the gender balance of Irish traditional and folk festival line-ups from January–June of 2022.
Now check out part 2! This follow-on report looks at 40 folk and traditional festival events which took place from June-December of 2022. On average, women make up 36.2% of the performers and 27.6% of headline acts. From the information available, we did not identify any non-binary performers.
Although more work needs to be done, we are encouraged by the overall improvement in gender balance, and we can clearly see where some festivals have worked hard to improve their programming. However not every festival has got the message! To see how your favourite festival did, read the full report.
Safe To Create’s Report + Support is now live! || 23 June 2023.
SAFE TO CREATE / REPORT + SUPPORT anonymous reporting facility for arts and creative workers is now live. Through Report + Support, workers can voluntarily report incidents of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment experienced or witnessed in arts and creative workplaces. The reports submitted will:
provide up-to-date data on harmful behaviour in the sector;
highlight areas of particular concern;
guide the delivery of Safe to Create supports and preventative activity where they are most needed;
inform recommendations for sector-wide action.
People can make an anonymous report of a harmful incident at https://reportandsupport.safetocreate.ie/report
We at FairPlé are thrilled to see this come to fruition, given that it is something that we have actively lobbied for the past number of years. We’re glad to see both our lobbying efforts and our recommendations have fed into the excellent work of the Safe To Create team. Insights gathered through Report + Support will be invaluable to us all as we strive to improve workplace practices across the sector.
If affected, please know that support is available! Minding Creative Minds has a 24/7 Helpline offering free counselling and legal advice: call 1800 814 244 (in Ireland); 0800 0903677 (NI/UK); +353 1 5180277 (international) or visit https://mindingcreativeminds.ie/
Why Not Her? 2022/ 2023 Gender Disparity Report || 20 June 2023.
The latest Why Not Her? 2022/2023 report on Irish radio shows that only 6% of the top 100 songs on Irish radio were by Irish female artists (including collaborations with male artists), down from 13% in 2022. People of colour accounted for 19% and collaborations 10%.
We at FairPlé echo the call to action by the WhyNotHer? Collective. Those who work in broadcasting and playlisting must set aside their unconscious biases and shift towards a balanced cultural change that embraces diversity, equality, and inclusion. All Irish acts of every colour, creed, gender and binary should have an equal playing field in our music scenes! #WhyNotHer
LGBTQ+ Trad Session || 13 June 2023.
Happy #Pride! Join Trad is Amach for an LGBTQ+ Irish trad music session in the Cobblestone Pub Dublin, Friday 23rd June, 8.30pm. Let's celebrate together! ALL welcome!
Join Trad Is Amach at Dublin Pride Parade || 9 June 2023.
Join Trad is Amach, the LGBTQ+ trad musicians, singers and dancers collective for the Dublin Pride 2023 parade, 24th June, 12 noon! Trad is Amach will be there with their banner, blasting out trad tunes from a speaker as they march! It’s always an amazing event to be a part of, so please join and help us all celebrate diversity, equality and inclusion in Trad! Trad musicians, singers, dancers and fans, LGBTQ+ and straight allies are ALL welcome. HAPPY PRIDE!! For more info click here.
Happy Pride! || 6 June 2023.
Happy Pride Month!! We at FairPlé believe in and celebrate diversity, inclusion, and equity for all. As members and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community, we strive to listen to, learn from, celebrate, and actively support each other. The tradition is made better by love!
Equity, inclusion, diversity and safety for all || 19 May 2023.
A number of events have occurred this week that have horrified and appalled us and which we felt the need to address.
The shocking assault of a young teenager in Co Meath during the week, and the sharing of video footage across social media is both heartbreaking and worrying. It reflects, unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the unabated rise in homophobic and transphobic hate crimes across the world, which Ireland has not escaped. We are also appalled by the hatred shown towards refugees, and unacceptable vigilantism being carried out, including cordoning off of local areas and checking of passports. This is not acceptable protest. This is hate, pure and simple. There is no place, in a country with such a long troubled history of oppression and emigration and which prides itself on its warm welcome, for such acts of intolerance.
The LGBTQIA+ community and refugees are a welcome and important part of Irish society, and regardless of whether members are part of our music community or not, FairPlé support all. We want to reiterate our support and to state clearly and unequivocally that we believe in equity, inclusion, diversity and safety for all.
Ní neart go cur le chéile/ there is no strength without unity.
#DiversityNotDivision #RefugeesWelcome #IrelandForAll || 18 February 2023.
For 5 years FairPlé has worked hard to try and ensure the Irish music tradition is safe, welcoming and inclusive. Many members have toured all over the world performing to Ireland’s vast diaspora- descendants of those who emigrated during times of famine, war, oppression. Our songs and music tell these stories of poverty, colonisation, indentured slavery, separation, racism, misery but also of resistance, rebellion, hope, refuge, sanctuary and making a future in new lands.
This is why we believe so strongly in an #IrelandForAll, where everyone has a voice and a contribution to make, where everyone who wants to make Ireland their home is welcomed and accepted and where our country, our society and our tradition are made all the richer for it.
Safe to Create “Code of Behaviour” and “Code on the Road” workshops || 28 October 2022.
Safe To Create developed a “Code of Behaviour” so everyone working in the arts/creative sectors knows their employee rights, employer obligations and what services and supports exist. They are currently hosting workshops around the country to provide information for individuals and support for organisations to utilise and implement the “Code of Behaviour”.
We endorse Safe To Create’s objective in wanting all arts organisations and individuals to formally sign up and publicly declare their commitment to the implementation of the “Code of Behaviour”. The workshops are designed to guide people through this process.
Book your place now – we all have a responsibility in creating a safe and inclusive arts scene for all!
FairPlé welcomes “Safe to Create” and Oireachtas Report on "A Safe and Respectful Working Environment in the Arts” || 07 October 2022.
We welcome the announcement of the creation of "Safe to Create". This is an important advancement for people in the arts. We also welcome the Oireachtas Report on "A Safe and Respectful Working Environment in the Arts" and are hopeful that this report will be the start of real, legislative change to create a safe and fair arts scene for all. We are so proud of our contribution to these and what we have achieved this year and previously to bring attention to the problems within our sector.
In particular, we welcome an acknowledgment of the issues we brought forward both to the Oireachtas committee and in separate meetings with Minister Martin, and with the Arts Council, such as gender disparity in pay, gender imbalance at gigs, sexual and verbal harassment and assault. We would like to once again thank and acknowledge all of the courageous women who came forward and reiterate that YOU made a difference. To people who have experienced harmful behaviour in the arts, we see you, we hear you, we believe you.
We thank Catherine Martin and the Department for listening. We look forward to seeing the full implementation of the Safe to Create tools and initiatives and call on our political leaders to commit to sustaining and funding these resources. We encourage stakeholders, organisations, and practitioners to disseminate and utilise the valuable resources available on the Safe to Create website to ensure a safe and equal scene for all. This is only the start of the changes needed to make the arts safe and inclusive.
Launch of Oireachtas Joint Committee Report, "A safe and respectful working environment in the arts" || 21 September 2022
FairPlé is hopeful our recommendations as brought before the committee in October 2021 were listened to and accepted, and are reflected in the report. We hope today is a positive day and an important step in our continued strive to ensure the arts are a safe and welcoming space for all. We look forward to commenting in the near future once we’ve had time to read and digest the report.
Happy Pride! || 2 June 2022
Happy Pride! FairPlé believes in and advocates for an inclusive and safe music scene for all regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, socioeconomic background. How will you celebrate? #PrideMonth #Pride2022 #FairPlé #SAOI
FairPlé Launch Festival Line-Up Challenge || 3 May 2022
It’s festival season folks, so while you’re booking those tickets and checking out the acts why not check out these stats and our festival line-up challenge.
We know that festival programmers have been working to address gender balance and we can see that bands with women members are being booked. However, the statistics show us that there is a lot more work to do.
FairPlé is making a direct call out to all promoters, festival organisers and event programmers to make substantive gender balance a priority. There are plenty of amazing women, non-binary and gender-fluid artistes out there, but we are not getting to see or hear all of them.
We are calling on festival funders and sponsors to take a proactive approach to the gender balance of the events you are supporting. At a minimum, all public funding should be conditional upon monitoring and reporting on gender balance of all aspects of the funded events.
There is no limit on the space in our tradition: there is room for everyone. It’s time to think differently: be creative. After everything that has happened over the last two years, why are we going back to old patterns and old rules?
The challenge is on.
We have reviewed the line-ups of 16 folk and traditional festival events taking place in the first half of 2022. The gender breakdown of total performers for each festival is given, along with the breakdown for headline acts where known.
On average, women make up only 24.9% of the performers.
It's time for change. We need to see more diversity on our stages and in our performance spaces. To view our full report, visit https://www.fairple.com/fairple-challenge
#FairPléChallenge #FairPlé
A note on our methodology: We have calculated the gender balances on these line-ups based on publicly available online information about the bands and acts. Where musicians have taken part in multiple events at a festival, they are counted only once. Where we have not been able to obtain details of any acts, we have noted that in our report – if you are able to provide details so that we can complete that data, please do contact us. If you believe that we have misgendered anyone in our reporting, in particular if we have overlooked any non-binary people, please do contact us and let us know.
Published: 3 May 2022
FairPlé statement on gender balance on 2022 festival line-ups || International Women’s Day 22
FairPlé was established in 2018 with the primary aim of addressing the lack of balance in gender representation in the Irish traditional and folk music scene. The global pandemic has given everyone time to reflect and reset. With the welcome return of live gigs and festivals, throughout 2022 FairPlé will be taking a look at how the festival line-ups are shaping up in terms of gender balance.
We have reviewed the statistics for 9 folk and trad festivals taking place between January and June 2022 and, on average, women make up 25.33% of the total performers at each festival. We know that festival programmers have been working to address gender balance and we can see that bands with women members are being booked. However, the statistics show us that there is a lot more work to do.
FairPlé is making a direct call out to all promoters, festival organisers and event programmers to make substantive gender balance a priority. There are plenty of amazing women, non-binary and gender-fluid artistes out there, but we are not getting to see or hear all of them. Details of many musicians can be found in our directory.
We are calling on festival funders and sponsors to take a proactive approach to the gender balance of the events you are supporting. At a minimum, all public funding should be conditional upon monitoring and reporting on gender balance of all aspects of the funded events.
There is no limit on the space in our tradition: there is room for everyone. It’s time to think differently: be creative. After everything that has happened over the last two years, why are we going back to old patterns and old rules?
The challenge is on. We will be collating data on as many of the festivals within the traditional and folk music scene on the island of Ireland as possible. We will start publishing data for individual festivals from the end of this month. We hope that by the end of the year, we have good news.
FairPlé
Published: 8 March 2022
