The gender disparities in music are such that more and more festivals are exclusively programming women. According to the 2018 report of the High Council for Equality between Women and Men, "97% of the groups programmed by major music festivals are composed exclusively or mainly of men".
In the light of this, Hervé Bordier, artistic director of the Rio Loco festival, invited 24 artists or women's group leaders to the Prairie des filtres, on the banks of the Garonne, with the headline Jeanne Added, Lisa Simone, Muthoni Drummer Queen, Angélique Kidjo ...
"It's not a gadget to do La Voix des femmes, the idea was to lay the first stones," says Hervé Bordier. The theme questions the place of women in music, but the initiative is not new, since the festival "Women get involved" or "The collective 52" is exclusively suitable for female performers every year.
A festival of "world music"
The festival Rio Loco Toulouse stands out with a 100% feminine and eclectic world music. Female artists from all walks of life met in Toulouse to express their voices, those of militant and committed women, like that of Jah9, Jamaican artist: "I appreciate this opportunity to speak on stage because there are problems that are peculiar to the black woman and that need to be brought to light. "
In total, more than 60,000 festival-goers came to listen to La Voix des femmes. This edition ended with Franco-Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo opening the way for the next Rio Loco festival. In 2020, Africa will be the next theme of the festival in Toulouse.