As we have seen a slew of streaming music festivals and entertainment, many are still scratching their heads as to why, in 2020, we are still seeing such gender inequity when it comes to performer lineups. This sparked a brand-new collaboration with Bandsintown and Twitter curated by DJ and producer Dani Deahl, as they are creating a festival called net.work to showcase the diversity among the DJ and producer world.
It all started with a Tweet by DJ UNiQU3…
Due to this response, among the chatter from many others who have been pointing out the gender bias in music for years, Bandsintown and Twitter have joined a group of diverse, electronic music producers and DJs to launch net.werk, a day-long festival on the Bandsintown LIVE channel this Thursday April 16 from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. PST.
“We are in an online space where there’s the opportunity to make different choices, yet that hasn’t been happening,” Deahl explained. “So we decided to do something about it. Bandsintown was a natural choice for their ongoing effort to support artists. They immediately expressed support for our values and our vision. Having Twitter pledge support was unexpected and thrilling. It’s amazing to join forces with companies who are as excited as we are about creating space for underrepresented artists.”
The net.werk festival will feature a diverse set of gender nonbinary, queer, PoC, and female-identifying DJs and producers. Twitter joined in and will be streaming the sets as well to help drive attention to these amazing performers. All proceeds from the net.werk festival will be donated to the MusiCares COVID Relief Fund.
“We believe that intimacy of music livestreaming is a new form of entertainment, but this unprecedented moment of opportunity has not helped all artists equally,” said Fabrice Sergent, Bandsintown’s managing partner.
With the desire to radically implement change in visibility for the queer and female-identifying DJs who often get fewer opportunities and far less exposure in the world of trip-hop, electronic, and dance music, the community-focused event is a way to bring the world’s attention to these talented musicians.
Through celebrating diverse artists and showcasing talents all over the world, Bandsintown have amassed more than 725,000 unique viewers to the free, intimate music programming on Bandsintown LIVE’s Twitch channel since its launch three weeks ago. Now, they are shifting focus and bringing in the perspective that’s been missing and providing a platform for the artists who deserve visibility the most.
“The group effort is so indicative of how music folks have been coming together to help each other out in these times,” Deahl said. “The whole thing came together in a week. We wanted to show a bang-up collection of artists that just *happened* to include women, artists of color, nonbinary artists, queer artists, in other words, the artists who always put in a huge amount of work and emotional labor to get noticed. This day is a platform for them.”
net.werk on Bandsintown LIVE (Thursday, April 16)
Hosted by Cray
3:00pm ET / 12:00pm PT – Varien
3:50pm ET / 12:50pm PT – Elephante
4:40pm ET / 1:40pm PT – Mija
5:30pm ET / 2:30pm PT – Sophie (of Sofi Tukker)
6:20pm ET / 3:20pm PT – HANA
7:10pm ET / 4:10pm PT – Kandy
8:00pm ET / 5:00pm PT – UNiiQU3
8:50pm ET / 5:50pm PT – KITTENS
9:40pm ET / 6:40pm PT – WHIPPED CREAM
10:40pm ET/ 7:40pm PT – Dani Deahl
11:30pm ET / 8:30pm PT – Ducky
12:20am ET / 9:20pm PT – Krewella
1:10am ET / 10:10pm PT – COM3T (Dani Thorne)
2:00am ET / 11:00pm PT – adam&steve