Sakharof and Dayan (photo: screenshot, image processing)
"Guitar Festival in the Red Sea" apologizes for discriminating against female singers as revealed last night in Vala!
culture.
As mentioned, yesterday after the festival revealed its program and published an official ad on its behalf - it caused an uproar on the internet from sources in the music industry due to allegations of discrimination against women.
First, the festival lineup includes only three women (Yuval Dayan, Yael Deckelbaum and Dana Berger) compared to 13 male musicians.
Second, the three women were assigned to what are known as "afternoon shows."
None of them were assigned to the more prestigious evening performance where some of the male musicians perform, and none of them were assigned to the larger stage where most of the men perform - at the "Yishrotel Live" complex.
In the official ad for the festival, the 13 male artists were highlighted in the center of the ad, under the honorable title "The Artistic Program";
On the other hand, the three women were relegated to the margins of the ad and not under the "artistic program" but under the title "afternoon shows - intimate in Jasper",
The apology message on behalf of the festival published today reads: "First of all, we want to apologize to everyone who was offended by our festival ad, including the festival's beloved artists. We immediately took care of designing a new ad. Needless to say, we see great importance in the inclusion of women on all stages and in all placements in this festival and in all productions Ours, subject to availability and artistic suitability.
Referring to the minority of female singers at the festival, the organizers explained: "This year, too, many women were approached by us - some for the main stage, some as guests and some for the midday stage.
In most cases, this was due to the availability problem of the musicians.
At the same time, we hear you and will work at the same time to improve the upcoming festival in this sense.
We believe that no artist would want to be assigned to one or another festival on the basis of gender but on the basis of their art."
The production of the festival is signed by the Municipality of Eilat, the Eilat Tourism Corporation and Forum Productions.
The ad that caused a stir (photo: screenshot, screenshot)
The one who first pointed out the discrimination was the journalist Nitzan Pinko on her Facebook page, who wrote, among other things: "One step forward and two steps back, but the one left behind is you. Guitar, sun and sexism."
Following her, the musician Assaf Talmudi shared the festival ad on his Facebook page and wrote: "Men in blue on a big stage outside in the evening. Women in pink on a small stage in the morning. Tin festival."
Dozens of angry reactions were registered to the post, among others by artists performing at the festival - one of them is Assaf Amdorsky, who wrote "embarrassing".
Talmudi replied to him: "I'm sure you and his uncle will sort it out in a few WhatsApp messages."
Amdorski answered: "The companies and members have been working on this since the morning. We will surely be able to host someone here and someone there. Still, I personally learned that I must ask in advance who is participating and what the plans are and not rely on festival managers to think about the obvious themselves. I do not accept the criticism as if it were Because of the ultra-Orthodox/rightists/the government, etc. This is exactly how the lineup looked all these years at the Arad, Tzemach and Independence Day festivals. I just hoped that we had progressed since then."
Moshe Levy, who accompanies Shalom Hanoch performing at the festival, also used the words "Tin Festival".
Additional comments registered: "Hallucination! What the fuck is going on here. Are they adapting themselves to the current government?", "Stirring", "A real shame", "
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Compared to 13 men who will appear at the festival, only three women, including Yuval Dayan (Photo: Shay Franco)
This is not the first time that the festival has provoked a protest in this regard.
At the beginning of 2021, it was announced that only three women would appear at that festival out of 40 artists who were announced to appear.
Even then, this provoked the anger of musicians, and the women's lobby and NAAM turned to the festival directors with the demand to reconsider the schedule of performers.
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music
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discrimination
Exclusion of women
Assaf Amdorski
Yuval Dayan
Eilat Municipality
The guitar festival