Caroline Polachek is Furious to be Included on All-Female and Gender Non-Binary Moogfest Lineup
The former Chairlift vocalist equates lineup announcement to a "sympathy pedestal"
Photos by Tommaso Boddi/Getty, Gabriel Grams/Getty
Moogfest announced Phase One of its artist lineup yesterday morning. It includes Jenny Hval, Jamila Woods, LCD Soundsystem’s Gavin Rayna Russom, SOPHIE, Fatima Al Qadiri, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Japanese ambient musician Midori Takada, who will perform her debut U.S. set. Privacy rights activist Chelsea Manning will give a sure-to-be awesome presentation on “The Future of Creativity.”
It would have also included Caroline Polachek (formerly of Chairlift), but upon seeing the lineup she took to Twitter full-speed ahead: “furious to be (without approval) on an all-female & non-gender-binary announcement list,” read the first tweet. She added that “gender is not a genre,” which is true, and that she would rather “be in the pit with the boys” than onstage performing on what is surely a “sympathy pedestal” with a “male curator” at the helm. Moogfest issued a response, which you can read below clarifying that it is not, in fact, a “male curator” but a “diverse group of people that work together as a team.”
Update: I will no longer be performing at @Moogfest next year
— Caroline Polachek (@carolineplz) December 6, 2017
Furious to be (without approval) on an all-female & non-gender-binary announcement list for @Moogfest. Gender is not a genre. I don’t need a sympathy pedestal, esp from a male curator. Take my name off this list and put me in the pit with the boys. pic.twitter.com/6XWcWgldZC
— Caroline Polachek (@carolineplz) December 6, 2017
The second tweet withdrew Polachek from the Moog, whose lineup arrived with a 50-hour electronic music livestream performed by a series of women, transgender, and nonbinary artists called Always On. You can purchase your tickets to Moogfest, which will take place May 17-20 in Durham, right here.