Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, George Ezra and Biffy Clyro will headline this year’s Isle of Wight Festival, organisers have confirmed, as controversy surrounds the lack of female performers on festival stages.
Ex-Oasis star Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will top the opening night of the event on Friday June 14.
🎉 Isle of Wight Festival 2019 first line-up announcement has arrived!
Tickets on sale from Friday 25th 9am
#IOW2019 SEE YOU IN JUNE. 👉 https://t.co/u1XGGhLOgG pic.twitter.com/gmSa3WmdJl
— Isle of Wight Fest (@IsleOfWightFest) January 23, 2019
Singer-songwriter Ezra will headline the main stage the next day, in what is billed as his first major UK festival headline performance.
Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro will take to the main stage on Sunday June 16, closing the Festival with a headline performance.
Female stars Anne-Marie, Jess Glynne, KT Tunstall, Freya Ridings, Lily Allen and Sigrid have been announced for the event, but most of the names announced so far are men.
Fatboy Slim is a special guest, performing there for the first time.
Other acts include Bastille, The Courteeners, Dean Lewis, DMA’S, Gerry Cinnamon, IDLES, James, Jax Jones, Madness, Miles Kane, Mystery Jets, Richard Ashcroft, Rick Astley, Sam Fender, Sigala, The Coral, Tom Walker and Wild Front.
Last year DJ Annie Mac complained that “music festivals have always been heinously lacking in women.
“I have been DJing for 12 years, starting out as the lone woman on all-male line-ups,” she wrote in Grazia magazine.
“I’ve been in excruciating situations, DJing surrounded by half-naked women on podiums.
“It took me years to pluck up the courage to tell promoters that I didn’t like the message it gave out.”
Ezra said that he was “extremely flattered to have been asked to headline and can’t wait to get up and play”.
The festival runs from June 13 to 16.