Here's how TRNSMT gender balance looks in 2025. It needs work

The National

4 days ago

New research by The National has found that while the representation of female artists at the festival has improved significantly since it launched in 2017, the number of women performing is still far behind its contemporary events.
While festivals like Primavera and Glastonbury have been putting on gender-balanced line-ups for several years, TRNSMT – which has taken the title of Scotland's largest music festival since the demise of T in the Park – is not keeping up.
Our findings also show there is a stark difference in gender balancing between the festival's premiere Main Stage and its much smaller King Tut's area.
Meanwhile, just one woman has been in a headline act at TRNSMT – Pulp keyboardist Candida Doyle. That means just one act out of 26 headliners has featured a woman, representing 3% of all headliners over the years.
Pulp on stage (Image: Adam Kennedy) The festival's lack of women has long been a source of discussion, with DF Concerts CEO Geoff Ellis, TRNSMT's director, previously saying that organisers would "love there to be a higher representation of females".
To do that, he said we "need to get more females picking up guitars, forming bands, playing in bands".
But other UK and European festivals are already achieving gender balanced line-ups, with plenty of women with guitars and bands taking to the stage.
Our research found that in 2017, TRNSMT started out with 10% of its Main Stage acts featuring at least one woman. By 2019, this had improved to 19%, and by 2023 had hit 42%.
But this year that figure is back down at 29%, meaning less than a third of this weekend's Main Stage performers feature at least one woman.
But elsewhere, the percentage of women on the King Tut's stage is nearing gender balance. This year, 48% of acts feature at least one woman – undoubtedly a huge improvement on the 10% recorded back in its debut edition.
There are plenty of women available to perform in the festival's secondary area, but not to take the top spots on its flagship stage.
READ MORE: Main stage act pulls out of TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow
Next year, it would be great to see at least one woman take the main headlining slot at TRNSMT.
While the King Tut's stage championing women in the earlier stages of their careers is welcome, the truth is that women aren't sitting around waiting to break through into the mainstream.
Women in music are running things in 2020s, sweeping the awards shows, selling out festivals like Primavera Barcelona and literally boosting the economy with huge spectacles including Taylor Swift and Beyonce's arena tours prompting massive spending among fans.
It's time for TRNSMT to recognise that, and be brave with their curation for 2026.