Moogfest announced their initial 2018 lineup on Wednesday (Dec. 6) by highlighting the women and non-binary artists that would be performing at next year’s event, and shortly after, Caroline Polachek — who was scheduled to play — pulled out of the festival, saying that she didn’t approve being included on a list as a token. She said she was “furious” at being put on a lineup labeled as “female, transgender, and non-binary artists,” aruging that “gender is not a genre… I don’t need a sympathy pedestal, esp from a male curator.”
The former Chairlift singer, who now performs as CEP, followed up on Thursday (Dec. 7) with a longer statement clarifying her position. “I have no issue with all-fem/gnc lineups, but that’s not what Moogfest is,” she wrote.
“This is a gender-mixed festival where certain artists have been marched to the front of the line and paraded out together because they’re female / gnc. This speaks not to the artists or their music, but to the politics of the festival and self-congratulatory PR. To do this without permission from the artists on display is exploitative and unprofessional.” She also noted her mistake regarding the curator “being a man not a team of people,” after assuming the person whose name was on the email was solely responsible for the announcement.
Polachek went on to say that the list of artists is “dazzling,” and that she was thrilled to be billed next to heroes of hers such as Midori Takada and SOPHIE,” adding that Moogfest, and all other festivals, simply have a responsibility to “position inclusivity as normal.”
Read her full statement below.
— Caroline Polachek (@carolineplz) December 7, 2017
This article originally appeared on Stereogum.