Its approach to festival gender politics is certainly… interesting.
“…there is very little security, management or safety measures taken considering there are thousands of young people getting drunk there. Most of them young men, not many girls at all!…”
“…amongst the sea of neon curse word shirts, you notice the 10:1 male to female ratio. At first this is awesome, but as the night pumps on this becomes tiresome and a little creepy…”
“…the clubs are overcrowded with youngsters in the ration 2:1 Boys/Girls. Herds of young boys, often drunk, are roaming around…”
These are TripAdvisor reviews of Zrće Beach, the setting of Allure Festival, where according to its website, “even the music feels sexy”. Sure.
“The sun and the amazing venue will not be the only things making you hot”, it continues. The Croatian electronic music festival is special in that it will employ only female DJs, dancers, hostesses and promoters at its weekend-long event this July – a worthy endeavour, surely, as electronic music network female:pressure calculated female presence on festival lineups at under ten percent this summer.
The lack of female names on big festival lineups has been big news this year: viral hit Tumblr blog ‘very male lineups’ points out the disparity on supposedly forward-thinking electronic music bills with help from a disapproving Rihanna, The Guardian has asked where the women are at the UK’s biggest festivals, and this is what the Reading & Leeds 2015 lineup would look like if only bands with female members were included.
The idea of organising a female-only festival as a way of combatting the perennially male festival circuit has been explored previously by Cambridge’s Space-Time Festival, while The Black Madonna’s DAPHNE series took a slightly different and much-praised approach which strived for a more considered gender balance by putting women in leadership positions across its series of events.
Allure’s approach to the lack of female representation in electronic music is… different. With its site inviting you to “Embark on a sexy journey never experienced before”, the festival’s USP of an all female staff is applied because they “believe women embody the core meaning of beauty, strength and sexiness.”
With its website’s voyeuristic tendencies and strong attachment to the terms, ‘sexy’, ‘sensation’, ‘sensuality’ and ‘seduction’, we can’t quite get our head around the concept. So we caught up with Ana from the festival to find out what makes Allure ‘the sexiest summer festival’ in the world.
For those unaware of Allure, can you explain the ethos behind the festival?
‘’Allure’’ is the quality of being attractive, interesting and exciting. It’s a music festival on a whole new level, since it combines sexiness, elegance and orgasmic sophistication. We wish to elevate female beauty and strength and take you on a musical experience where women rule the world.
What makes Allure festival the ‘sexiest summer festival’?
In the mid of summer (21. – 23. 7. 2015), the sun and the amazing venue of Kalypso club will not be the only things making you hot – all DJs, dancers, hostesses and promoters will be female.
We believe that anyone who joins us on this journey will be allured by a musical sensation where spirituality, sensuality and seduction are combined with the spark of great music.
How are women essential to the Allure experience?
We are making women the center of the allure experience, since we believe they embody the core meaning of beauty, strength and sexiness.
What has the response been like so far? Have you had much interest?
So far – impressively outstanding 🙂
Who is Allure aimed at? What kind of clientele are you expecting?
Allure is aimed to all lovers of house-electronic music and everybody who wants to have a great time in a sexy atmosphere, surrounded by the gorgeous scenery of the Island of Pag. We think Allure music festival will be amazing opportunity for both men and women! Men will have an opportunity to see beautiful women presenting their amazing music, dancers tearing up the dance floor, and women will be treated as goddesses every step of their way 😉
You describe the festival as a ‘celebration of beautiful women’. Do you anticipate that this could attract the wrong kind of attention?
We are trying to give women an opportunity to mark their place as equals in a mostly male industry. We are trying to highlight women sexuality, while still not making it the core of our festival. We believe women possess a special sexy vibe which should be treated as a virtue and not something to be looked down on. But still, our festival is all about great music and amazing performances, good looks are just a plus 😉
Words: Sammy Jones + Anna Tehabsim
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