How The Media Failed Key Western Fest’s All Woman Lineup
In 2024, the 2nd Annual Key Western Fest in Key West, Florida did something quite remarkable. In an environment where the country music industry continues to struggle booking women at festivals in equal share to their male counterparts, Key Western Fest booked a festival entirely of women.
The festival was founded in 2023 to answer the resurgent interest in ’90s country music, of which women played a major role. In fact, the ’90s were the last time in country music when women got near equal representation on radio, and at festivals and other events.
“We certainly didn’t set out for year two of Key Western Fest to be an all woman festival,” says festival owner and promoter Kyle Carter. “But as what happens in many instances, you start with a wish list, and then you start to get availability, which leads you to the potentials we could have. As we pared down that initial list, what popped out to me was the availability of women at a high level that fit the bill. It was this incredible ‘ah-ha!’ moment of ‘Look at all these women.'”
Key Western Fest’s headliners included Wynonna Judd, Lee Ann Womack, Tanya Tucker, and Jo Dee Messina. The festival also included other ’90s country legends such as Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan, Deana Carter, and Suzy Boggus. To fill out the lineup, they also booked some new women of country such as Nikki Lane, Mickey Guyton, and Brit Taylor.
“We’re fully cognizant that we need to have diversity in a lineup,” Kyle Carter says. “But if it’s not there, it’s not there. But in the late ’80s into the late ’90s, there were these dominant women, and that came out on the spreadsheet. I thought this might be our only opportunity in this space and time to do an all-female lineup. And this wasn’t a gimmick. This was truly high level talent that just happened to be all women. These were hitmakers. These were Country Music Hall of Famers. These are CMA and Grammy winners, and multi-Platinum album performers.”
The festival may have booked all women, but they made an active effort to not make that curation point the center of attention. “I didn’t want to lead the day that these are women. What I wanted to lead the day was the level of these artists,” Kyle Carter says. Agent Shannon Casey at the talent agency Wasserman represented about 11 of the performers on the lineup, and like Kyle Carter, also saw this as an opportunity to showcase world-class talent that happens to be women.
Kyle Carter also dealt with multiple male representatives from booking agencies. “I didn’t exactly get anybody standing on their chair, and wanting to champion it. Except for Shannon Casey, nobody was thrilled about that concept.”
But what could have ultimately been a triumphant event in the festival calendar for country music women turned out to be a near disaster not just for Key Western Fest, but the entire OhWook! Productions organization behind the festival, which also hosts the Texas/Red Dirt-oriented Mile 0 Fest the week before, and the throwback rock-oriented RokIsland Fest the week before that in January. Despite the big names on the Key Western Fest lineup, tickets for the festival only sold at about 20% of the capacity of Key West’s Truman Waterfront Amphitheater.
The venue can handle about 4,000 people, though Oh Wook! limits attendance to about 3,700 for their events to make room for vendor experiences and to make sure patrons aren’t overcrowded. The company’s Mile 0 Fest has sold out on multiple years, and the inaugural Key Western Fest in 2023 that had a mix of men and women on the lineup sold to about a 65% capacity, according to Kyle Carter.
“Most shows need to be near capacity to be profitable and sustainable,” Kyle Carter explains, and says he doesn’t even budget for turnout to be anything less than 50%, because before Key Western Fest 2024, they had never promoted an event with lower than 50% turnout.
What was the cause for such a demonstrably low turnout? The answer that many in the public will state is that “women don’t sell tickets.” But Kyle Carter feels there is another culprit.
“When we released this lineup, I thought it was an incredible lineup of talent, I thought it was unique that we were featuring all these women,” he explains. “As a promoter, we get it all the time, ‘Women, women, women. Hire more women. Get more diversity,’ which we had by adding Mickey Guyton to the lineup. So I thought this would get picked up at a very high level from some large outlets. I didn’t see why it wouldn’t. It’s extremely unique.”
But that’s not what happened when the lineup for Key Western Fest was announced. Though a small smattering of outlets covered the initial announcement, Townsquare Media outlets like Taste of Country and The Boot, Penske Media outlets like Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, and other outlets that you would think would cover such a unique lineup of all women such as NPR and CMT, and even smaller outlets such as No Depression, The Bluegrass Situation, Holler, and others did not run stories on the Key Western Fest lineup. It went curiously ignored for any festival, let alone one with all women.
“Every month I thought, ‘Okay, this is it, we’ll start getting steam’ because we’re being asked all the time to book more women, and there’s articles about it all the time, and there’s media stories all the time about fairness and equality. All those people that talked about it for years and years now, I never got a call. I never got a single phone call,” Kyle Carter confirms.
Even the social media influencers who commonly post about the issues surrounding women in country music and advocate for equal billing at festivals were curiously silent on Key Western Fest 2024, not even posting or retweeting about it online.
“Big media dropped the ball completely,” Kyle Carter says. “They went off and went silent, and didn’t do anything about this after how many years of talking about this? After many years to taking the easy path and saying, ‘Promoters should do this.’ Well, promoters need the help of media outlets, and we didn’t get anything.”
Perhaps it’s easy to make the media the scapegoat for the low turnout of Key Western Fest 2024, but Kyle Carter says his organization went above and beyond to promote the festival themselves as well.
“We have a publicist. We have a media and marketing director, along with myself, beating the streets trying to get this in front of some large outlets to say, ‘We’ve got something special here.’ Tell me that lineup is not news. But I didn’t build this lineup and then sit back and say, ‘Okay media, do your job.’ We actually spent three times the amount of money on advertising than we did the other shows. The other shows sold 3-4 times what Key Western Fest sold. So we did our part. My shock in the media not picking it up is in everything that I’ve read over the years, and how ‘This needs to happen.’ Now, it happens, and nothing gets picked up.”
What did happen was a festival full of great talent and top notch performances highlighting much of the country music that made ’90s country a high water mark for country women. This is what Saving Country Music observed over the five days of Key Western Fest 2024. And the people who did make the effort to come down to Key West appeared to have a great time.
“It is deserving even now of being spread like, ‘Boy, did we miss the boat here.’ Talk to the people that were on the island that came from all over the United States,” Kyle Carter says.
The next question is, why didn’t the media cover the only country music festival in recent memory that had an all woman lineup?
After talking to numerous sources throughout the industry, there are a few theories.
The first is that the lack of media coverage for Key Western Fest 2024 confirms a media bias against covering women. Though the media loves to run stories about the issues facing women in country, when it comes to actually doing the ground level work of supporting women at the up-and-coming stages of their careers, or offering continuing coverage for country legends, or coverage of an all-woman event like Key Western Fest 2024, writers and editors know there won’t be as high of an interest in the stories compared to ones involving male performers, and shy away from them.
Others are concerned that now that much of the narrative about diversity in country music has shifted in large part to Black and Brown performers, and LGBT performers, the “women in country music” issue is seen as secondary, passé, or even unimportant, putting the women of country in an even more precarious spot than they were before when the media was focused on the issue.
Some of the most cynical takes are that some of the high profile individuals in country music media who commonly raise the lack of representation for women have perverse incentives to keep the issue alive as opposed to making fundamental efforts to resolve it since it’s how they’ve branded themselves. Some leaders in the effort to increase the representation of women only seem to want to push their solutions as opposed to working hand in hand with others to address the representation of women in a more holistic manner.
Another theory is that since Key Western Fest didn’t make a big issue out of only booking women, perhaps it was regarded as a hollow gesture, or not a compelling enough of a story line to cover. Key Western Fest actively decided to not make the lineup political. But this is not how much of the public reacted to the lineup when it was finally presented to them.
The Instagram account Book More Women did post the lineup for Key Western Fest, but not until January 29th, or the day before the festival was scheduled to start. When the lineup was finally presented to the public and the people who it would most appeal to, the reception was positive. The festival was also given specific credit for not making a big deal about booking all women.
“Is it me, or are they doing this without drawing attention to the fact that EVERY SINGLE act on this bill is a woman artist?” award-winning songwriter Mary Gauthier commented on Book More Women’s Instagram post. “The matter of fact approach to billing all women and calling it “Key Western Fest” is … amazing.”
Book More Women replied to Gauthier, “YES! I thought it was awesome, none of their own press referred to the fact at all, just referring to their ‘superstar’ lineup.”
Producer/DJ Ertha Harris also praised the approach saying, “I love that there is no mention of this being an all female lineup, because it shouldn’t matter.”
This is how the Key Western Festival lineup should have been received the whole time. However, it was not being presented to the public until right before the festival commenced. Rolling Stone also finally ran an article on Key Western Fest on January 29th, but again, it was the day before the festival, and too late to affect the turnout.
The media may have not talked about or even noticed the Key Western Fest lineup, but the industry most certainly did, along with the event’s low ticket sales. Despite the positive reception for the event itself by attendees, it’s very likely the 2024 Key Western Fest will act like a Waterloo moment for the “Book More Women” movement, verifying the prior notions of booking agents, promoters, and others throughout the industry that not just an all-woman lineup cannot fly, but that women just don’t sell tickets in general, fair or not.
Key Western Fest should have been the moment the journalists, activists, academics, performers, and others agitating for more representation for country women came together to prove the proof of concept that women can carry a lineup. Instead, it’s likely to have the opposite effect.
“When they say, ‘They’ll learn. This will teach them.’ That’s not true. We know how to run our business, and something like this is not going to make us change our mind about putting great talent on a stage,” says Kyle Carter of Key Western Fest. “The artists were incredible, the fans were incredible, the weather was great, and it didn’t get picked up, and that’s a shame. It’s a real shame because this was an opportunity to say, ‘This can happen.’ Yes, it didn’t perform well. But when things are brand new, they don’t perform well.”
And beyond the lack of media support that helped lead to such a low turnout for Key Western Fest 2024, there continue to be economic factors behind why women are not getting booked in equal numbers to male performers that must be addressed on a more fundamental level. Many promoters want to book more women, but basic availability continues to be an issue.
“You need to field enough big artists where you can sell the show and sustain. It can’t be 15 women that happen to play music that are in a band that don’t sell tickets,” Kyle Carter explains. “That’s not a sustainable model. There’s not enough large artist or even mid-sized women that are selling enough tickets. You can blame that on radio, or you can blame that on the agencies, but I’m just telling you what the facts are. We do work with new talent, but new talent doesn’t drive sales. You need an established band to sell tickets. You’re going to depend on 80% of your tickets sales to come from your headliners and direct support.”
Another issue that’s commonly presented when criticizing the representation of women on festival lineups is that the public thinks that all promoters are created equal, and have deep pockets to pay women more if they wanted to.
“People think it’s big companies that run these festivals. Certainly there’s the LiveNations and AEGs out there. But we have four full-time employees. We’re not a big company, and most mid-sized producers are not. And most of my team is women,” says Kyle Carter.
Despite the low attendance for Key Western Fest 2024, those who were attendance, and the performers who played will attest that it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. It feels like one of those events that in the future, people will look back upon and be awed by the talent assembled and brag about being there, especially since it may never happen again.
The lesson of the 2024 Key Western Fest is that talk is not enough. If the women of country music are going to win equal representation at festivals, it’s going to take action beyond social media posts calling out the lack of representation of certain festivals. It’s going to take material support for the festivals that are prioritizing women. It’s going to take talking about those festivals a priority, as opposed to focusing solely on the megafestivals that draw more eyeballs.
“When men say behind-the-scenes is, ‘I told you women don’t sell tickets,’ our attendance at Key Western Fest props that up. But I still think that idea is bullshit,” Kyle Carter says. “I think this didn’t get carried like it should have. And had it been carried like it should have, we could have gone back and said, ‘I told you women can sell tickets.’ But that didn’t happen.”
February 13, 2024 @ 9:23 am
Therein lies the problem with today’s big media and social media influencers. Everything is seen through the lens of race, sex, orientation, etc. and is promoted as such.
Pretty racist and bigoted, huh?
February 13, 2024 @ 12:12 pm
+1
February 13, 2024 @ 1:41 pm
No.
February 13, 2024 @ 9:33 am
“When men say behind-the-scenes is, ‘I told you women don’t sell tickets,’ our attendance at Key Western Fest props that up. But I still think that idea is bullshit,” I don’t.
Look, as this continued debate rages on in this site and other sites, one just has to accept facts. One can parse and minutely review details and reasons.
Now, they got the lineup for this show, and now we are looking at the media coverage as the reason. Although I somewhat agree with the article, what if the next time there IS proper media coverage for a similar even and they still does not draw? Well, there will be another reason brought up, and another, and another.
After a while, all the reasons will be gone through. And then we will have to look at the fact remaining. And Kyle referenced it above, though he may not personally agree with it. just the facts ma’am.
This was a very talented roster by the way. It is what it is.
February 13, 2024 @ 9:58 am
It’s fair to say that we don’t know if the media had picked up covering Key Western Fest that it would have sold through better. There’s a chance it still wouldn’t have. But what we can say for a fact is that the festival received a curious lack of media coverage for any festival, especially one with all women on the lineup. It wasn’t just that the media didn’t pick it up. It’s almost like the media actively avoided it. Why that is, is something the media must grapple with, while the people who actively work to get more women booked on festival lineups are going to have to grapple with the fact that this is catastrophic for that cause.
Or, just like they did with Key Western Fest, they’ll ignore the issue entirely, which so far, is exactly what is happening.
February 13, 2024 @ 10:05 am
I do agree that it was curious why the media ignored this. You would have thought some would have championed this, especially due to the make-up of most media today.
February 13, 2024 @ 9:33 am
I applaud them but except for Nikki and Tanya that lineup does not excite me at all.
February 13, 2024 @ 9:42 am
A great line up of talent but would they have sold more tickets with media input? With a few exceptions they are stars of yesteryear and a fair few of them have not been that successful as recording artists. Added to that women do not sell as well as men for whatever reason. Women say this is nonsense but it really isn’t is it? Women tend to play to smaller venues whether it be music or sport. I do not know how much ticket prices were for this event but ticket prices are not cheap. Would you choose to spend them at an all women of yesteryear festival? I am not sure more media input would have turned this festival into a success. It was brave of the organisers to have such a line up. I am not sure I would have chosen an all female or for that matter all male or all white or all black line up. Why limit oneself? If possible, I would have wanted a more diverse line up with headliners who would bums on seats. I wish it had been more successful for them as there is such talent in the line up and a few I would really have liked to have seen (Tanya Tucker, Suzy Bogguss, Wynonna, Brit Taylor, Sara Evans and Lee Ann Womack to name a few).
February 13, 2024 @ 10:03 am
There is a massive resurgence of interest in ’90s country stars, and Key Western Fest is not alone in booking ’90s performers. Statistics show that interest and tickets sales for these performers are on the rise. The primary headliners for Key Western Fest—Wynonna, Jo Dee Messina, Tanya Tucker, and Pam Tillis—all played the Two Step Inn fest in Texas last year as well, which also put a ’90s emphasis on their lineup. That festival received an insane amount of press coverage, and sold out. It also had big male headliners, but I don’t think booking the “stars of yesteryear” is the issue. There are many fans that are actively seeking out lineups that feature ’90s country stars, and those crowds are filled with young and old people.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:41 pm
I do not disagree. For me the 90s is probably the peak. I am a fan of the 90s performers and a good few of these female artists, so does that not suggest an all female line up might be the problem?
February 13, 2024 @ 10:03 am
I don’t disagree with your overall point, but I think this particular festival is a rough one to use as a case study for it with most of the lineup being well past their commercial prime. That doesn’t invalidate the issue – indeed, there are good discussions to be had about the invisibility of women over 40 – but it dilutes the “women have a problem in Country” point quite a bit,
February 13, 2024 @ 10:08 am
There are festivals happening all around the country at the moment that are focusing on ’90s country since there has been a major resurgence of interest in that kind of music. Key Western Fest was founded in 2023 around featuring ’90s country stars, and sold well last year with a lineup of men and women. It also receive a significant amount more of press coverage than it did this year.
The issue may have been the press, and the issue may have been the all women lineup, and it may have been a combination of those things. But I don’t think the issue was the artists were too old. That’s the whole premise behind the festival that’s only looking to draw 3,700 people.
February 13, 2024 @ 10:51 am
Maybe a weird take on this. But a 5 day festival? With only a few performers each day? Not really sure who they were focusing on for attendance. Logistically it makes it difficult for attendees unless you live there or going to make it a destination for a vacation.
Make it a 2-3 day festival with more performers each day and shorter sets.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:18 am
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a graphic that showed the full schedule of the festival. That was just the main stage lineup. There were performances during the day by a host of other artists, including Jamie Lin Wilson, Erica Sunshine Lee, and there were actually a few guys that played. Jim Launderdale emceed a couple of days and played a day show. Matt Castillo played afterparties every night.
Key Western Fest’s main stage lineup is comparable to the two other festivals promoted at the same venue the two weeks prior, and they both sold well.
And again, Key Western Fest in 2023 had basically the same amount of performers, the same ’90s-style lineup with a few up-and-comers, and sold through well and received ample press coverage. So the issue was not with the festival concept itself. The issue was the all-woman lineup, and the lack of press coverage.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:48 am
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=387165773998087&set=a.146214371426563
Here is the schedule for the festival. Seems Like they include other locations during the day in addition to the amphitheater It seems dis-jointed to me as a person who might attend. Are those other locations included in the ticket price? Kendell Marvel was playing as well.
February 13, 2024 @ 1:34 pm
Yes, all the other shows are included in the ticket price.
The same promoters have been throwing Mile 0 Fest for going on eight years now. They promoted this same festival last year with the same concept, the same layout, the same basic amount of performers, and it did fine. This festival might not appeal to you, and that’s understandable. But I think to act like it’s something besides the fact that the lineup was all women/and/or the media ignored it is to completely ignore precedent from multiple other festivals.
This is a destination festival. People fly into Key West in February because it’s warm. They go to Ernest Hemmingway’s house. They visit the southernmost point. They watch the sunset on the famous sunset pier. And they watch music at night. It doesn’t have to appeal to everyone. But with the lineup, it should have appealed to 3,700 people, which is not that many. But the 3,700 didn’t know about it, because the media completely ignored it.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:00 am
Think another contributing factor is the location and pricing. This isn’t an easy road trip for a ladies weekend away from husbands, I feel like it easily sells 3-4k tickets in most other places.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:20 am
A festival in the Florida Keys is definitely going to be a heavy lift and an expensive proposition for anyone. But that’s also the incentive. The people that can travel would much rather see their favorite music in Key West in the dead of Winter than at the county fair down the road in a summer swelter.
Don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but Key Western Fest happened in 2023 too, and there were plenty of people there. So I don’t think it’s the festival concept or location as much as the all-woman lineup and the curious lack of press coverage.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:51 am
Throw some Latina women with a country sound in the lineup, with a little male backing in their band, & the place will light up.
Guaranteed.
This should be a wakeup call for the Key Western Fest organizers and promoters.
February 22, 2024 @ 9:29 am
Yes!!! I have worked with Lorrie Morgan for years though I don’t regularly attend shows, as it’s not part of the gig, I would’ve loved to make this trip. Being aware of team expenses, I just couldn’t. Key West is not an easy or economical destination whether flying or driving…AND available lodging started at $500 a night! 500!
I do know that the editor of Country Stars Central was onsite and his interview with Lorrie Morgan alone has elicited more than 1.5 million views. There is interest in these artists … in the right destination.
I would like to see comparisons festival to festival rather than point at one with a roster of women and say that gender is the fault. I am friends with members of the band Sister Sadie and when I talk about them, it’s about being freaking awesome singers and musicians, not about being an all-female band. (Okay, I did it here.)
Yes, the broader media failed to step up but there are more pieces to the puzzle of ultimate turnout than gender of the stars.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:12 am
If only I had known they were going to have a festival full of people with one particular set of genitals, I totally would’ve been there!
February 13, 2024 @ 11:17 am
The media that loves to complain about country music non-stop wouldn’t want to acknowledge something that is addressing something they like to complain about. Did any of the Highwomen say anything positive about this festival since they weren’t booked on it?
February 13, 2024 @ 1:21 pm
You would think this is something that anyone who is agitating for the cause of country women could get behind, including performers even if they’re not on the lineup. Mary Gauthier did, but that’s the only one that I know of. It’s really uncanny how little talk surrounded this fest. It’s hard to conclude it was anything but purposeful.
February 15, 2024 @ 11:43 am
Of course, it was on purpose, Trigger.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:32 am
If the festival had taken place in the Midwest, even in winter, you’d have seen better numbers. June’s windy city smokeout always sells out, and it’s never had a lineup as good as this year’s key western fest. We’re desperate for live music, especially now, and mainstream radio (US99, etc.) is desperate to promote more shows.
Someone needs to try this lineup in Shipshewana, Indiana or at country thunder wisc or Cadott or even two days worth of Milwaukee Summerfest. heck, next week is the one day punk / indie outdoor festival where it’s actually snowed at least two different years while bands were playing, and people get turned away if they don’t arrive early enough.
February 13, 2024 @ 1:51 pm
Blue Gate in Shipsy is only 1500 cap, not bad for a tribute band or smaller act just about to make the jump to bigger venues, but not great for others. I wonder if a few of their “bigger” acts are a bit of loss leaders for them as I can’t make the math make sense.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:51 am
Be on the lookout for Beyoncé joining the festival circuit – maybe Rock the Country fest and other more traditional leaning events. This, or course, leads up to next year’s awards season earning her Best Country Album and AOTY wins.
February 13, 2024 @ 8:10 pm
Beyonce’s, Texas HOLD ‘EM, is pure trash.
She will sweep the awards shows.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:59 am
Controversy gets clicks, so it’s in their interest to keep this problem going rather than promote those who are actively solving it. You’ll see the same thing when they start claiming country fans are racist for not enjoying Beyonce’s pop music released under the country banner and subsequently ignore all of the great black artists in country music, past and present. I would be shocked if Beyonce or anyone on the staff at Rolling Stone these days could name a single Charley Pride song.
February 13, 2024 @ 12:03 pm
Lillith Fair had trouble with ticket sales in the years it continued. I do feel that it was talent based as it went on. I think it takes time to capture a woman based audience. Once you have it there will be a loyal core. As a promoter, an independent one, I would be hesitant to try again. Although buying 11 acts from one company is not advisable.
February 13, 2024 @ 12:05 pm
I also wonder, though, if this problem could have been mitigated by booking a few more acts. It’s a great lineup, but most of them haven’t been relevant this century. Someone on the level of Dolly or Reba or even Shania or the Chicks would have likely increased turnout, as would maybe adding a few modern independent artists like Sierra Ferrell.
February 13, 2024 @ 1:29 pm
“Someone on the level of Dolly or Reba or even Shania or the Chicks would have likely increased turnout…”
Of course they would, but these are all arena-level acts that only play in venues with a capacity of 15,000 or larger, and probably demand $2.5+ million an appearance. That’s not going to fly at a 3,700-capacity venue. Dolly Parton has retired from touring.
I feel like a broken record here, but I don’t see the reason for this failure being the logistics or layout of the festival itself. They literally used this same concept of booking ’90s country stars last year, and it worked out great. Also, they promote two other festivals at this same venue, and under this same general concept the two weeks before. Both festivals sold at or near capacity. We don’t have to sit and game out hypotheticals of why it didn’t work this year. We have direct comparables.
The whole concept of this festival is the highlight ’90s country stars, who we know are receiving renewed interest from both older and younger fans.
February 13, 2024 @ 1:07 pm
I think the lack of turnout for a all-female Key Western Fest certainly had to do with the fact that the female stars of the 1990’s (Tanya Tucker,LeeAnn Womack,Deana Carter,Canadian lass Terri Clark,et al are all past 40,the age at which lady artists’ airplay begins to dwindle,even more than male stars’,but some weeks back,there was a thread here about 59-year-old cowboy John Michael Montgomery’s disappearance from the airwaves,plus the late Toby Keith was getting less airplay,as were Mark Chestnut,who’s 60 and practically gone from County radio.So while it’s harder today for gal artists of any age to break through than guys,especially the older lasses,the aging chaps aren’t immune for Country’s love of younger,seemingly more marketable artists.
February 13, 2024 @ 2:07 pm
Did the previous festivals have much mainstream publicity?
The bias against women runs deep in this and many industries. I’m including the audience in that, which is a much harder problem to fix.
February 13, 2024 @ 3:44 pm
Yes, this same festival ran a lineup with both men and women in 2023 and received significantly more press.
February 13, 2024 @ 2:44 pm
Trig points out that 90s acts sell tickets, but there’s a chance that “older” acts don’t interest the press, for whatever reason. So there may be a disconnect between what fans want and what the press wants to write about.
It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some ageism in the bigger music press.
February 13, 2024 @ 2:46 pm
And ageism tends to effect women more than men. Women have to be pretty, and pretty often means young
February 13, 2024 @ 3:41 pm
I agree that said media unfortunately has ulterior motives. Of course they aren’t interested. Media likes to generate controversy, certainly never diffuse it. Gotta keep the articles on the unfairness and double standard going.
I would have been interested in this event, but for time and logistics. 5 day fest? No way. Expense is high for lodging in particular. It is true women don’t tend to fill concerts at the level of men. That is a fact. Various reasons for that and we’ve discussed this many times on this very site. Aside from promoting it more and maybe shortening the duration of the fest, not sure anything else could have been done here.
February 13, 2024 @ 6:09 pm
“…some of the high profile individuals in country music media who commonly raise the lack of representation for women have perverse incentives to keep the issue alive as opposed to making fundamental efforts to resolve it since it’s how they’ve branded themselves.”
Cynical? More like Captain Obvious. Even the Mickey card couldn’t compete with that.
February 13, 2024 @ 6:51 pm
Mickey couldn’t draw flies to a cow pie.
February 13, 2024 @ 10:19 pm
Which makes it funnier that dude thought she was the golden ticket.
February 13, 2024 @ 11:02 pm
Mickey Guyton did not fit this lineup at all. But as I said in my recap of the fest, she was one of the most energetic performers all weekend, and the crowd really warmed up to her by the end of her set. She made herself very hard to hate.
Guyton is a great singer and I have never doubted her talent. It’s been her move to pop and her propensity to be used as a race prop that has been frustrating.
February 13, 2024 @ 10:38 pm
To be honest, the 2023 lineup seemed way better than the 2024 lineup. At its core, a ’90s country music festival thrives off of the nostalgia one feels for the music of the featured artists. A number of the 2024 artists give me zero feelings of nostalgia (Terri Clark, Lee Ann Womack, Jamie O’Neal, Carolyn Dawn Johnson); they are plenty talented, but I am more apt to forget they existed during that time. Sure, I love Wynonna, Tanya, and Jo Dee, but the rest of the lineup didn’t make me want to hop a flight to Key West. I will also say that, based on their recent Opry performances, Sara Evans and Lorrie Morgan are not artists I would go out of my way to see in their current states.
While I do think a better blend of male and female artists would have improved ticket sales, and while better press would have led to at least a few more sales, the 2024 lineup wasn’t the best. Kathy Mattea and Mary Chapin Carpenter were huge ’90s country artists; were they not available? Perhaps Martina McBride would have been willing to play a smaller venue since she’s not overexposed like Shania or Trisha Yearwood. It feels like they were betting on Tanya and Wynonna as headliners and the big-ticket pushers, but the sales didn’t materialize.
It would be worth asking all the aforementioned big names in “book more females” media why they didn’t report on it. Perhaps KWF’s publicists and marketing team didn’t follow up on those avenues as they should have. It seems hard to believe there was a dedicated effort on the part of all major outlets to blackball the event unless there was something lacking in how the event was presented to them.
February 14, 2024 @ 1:39 am
…great experiment with a clear outcome: it ain’t working like that. as much as i would have loved to see all those great performers there, the lack of diversity made it an special interest event right from the start. those are never selling anywhere near mainstream events. just look at the ticket sales of “art house” movie theatres and blockbuster multiplex venues. moreover, 90s country is all about a great mix of talents female and male. fans of that period and sound wouldn’t find that adequately represented on that key western line-up.
perhaps the media coverage could have been better but the main flaw(s) lies elsewhere: too much of one good thing.
February 14, 2024 @ 4:03 am
A recent writer said women are ‘partitioned’ in Nashville, which is absolutely correct and wretched. I guarantee that if this event happened in London it would sell out in minutes.
February 14, 2024 @ 5:42 am
Great article & commentary. An absolute indictment of all those critics who love to complain about country discriminating against women.
February 14, 2024 @ 7:48 am
There’s always the tendency to want to blame someone for something like this. How could everyone not want to support women artists? But honestly, is this a lack of support for female artists, or was this lineup short of a major draw? Yes these women were stars back in the 90s, but none of them are going to pull a large crowd as a headliner now. Adding Guyton, who is more media hype than an actual draw, wasn’t going to help.
I think this festival was going to under perform regardless of promotion without a big ticket name to draw fans in. The theme was supposed to be the 90s, but if you are going to add Guyton, why not go for a Lainey Wilson or other current big ticket female artist to draw in the younger festival going crowd?
Personally, I wouldn’t spend the large amount of money to travel for this festival as compared to other festivals with more exciting top draw talents. This festival just doesn’t have that headliner to compete.
February 14, 2024 @ 8:30 am
Mickey Guyton was in a support position, not a headliner. Wynonna is a massive draw. Tanya Tucker and Jo Dee Messina are also big draws. Lee Ann Womack, probably not so much, but as the promoter said, this all worked out on paper. Though Pollstar, you can see how many tickets artists sell.
Clearly, the fact that they had an all-woman lineup is one of the reason sales were so low. The question is if the media had picked it up even on a comparable level to other festivals, would it have sold through better?
February 14, 2024 @ 9:01 am
Wynonna, Tanya, and some of the others are draws that I would go see if they happen to swing in somewhere near me. I’m not saying they are not acts worthy of seeing. My point is more that these festivals rely on out of area fans traveling for an event. The cost for this can run in to thousands of dollars for travel, boarding, tickets, and meals. The promoter is hard pressed to convince fans this lineup is comparable to festivals with bigger acts.
All these artists are worthy of seeing, but are they a big enough draw to compete? Especially in a geographical area requiring long travel for most fans?
Perhaps more media coverage would have improved sales, but would it have been enough to make this event successful?
February 14, 2024 @ 9:56 am
Key Western Fest, just like Mile 0 Fest, is a destination festival. The whole point is to travel to somewhere else to see the music you like. People go there to be in Key West in the winter where it’s warm and sunny like summer. Mile 0 Fest sells out, or gets close to selling out every year. It’s mostly fans from Texas and Oklahoma, watching bands from Texas an Oklahoma that play down the road from them half a dozen times a year. Sure, this may not be for everyone and it is expensive. But to be frank, I continue to be stupefied by the comments that don’t seem to understand that the concept behind the festival has been proven successful over, and over, and over again.
Mile 0 Fest has had seven successful years. Key Western Fest last year also was successful. It was the same exact festival, in the same exact spot, at the same exact time, with the same basic level of lineup, just with men and women. There is no reason to draw on hypotheticals. You have an actual real world event to compare it to.
Clearly, having an all woman lineup affected the turnout. The entire point of this discussion is to ask why after YEARS of the press screaming at promoters to book more women, when a festival books an all-woman festival, the press goes curiously silent. That is what we’re talking about. We already know a country festival in Key West can work, because it’s worked over and over. Why the press didn’t cover it is the discussion point here.
February 14, 2024 @ 11:26 am
Ok, media coverage. Let’s be honest. The media doesn’t really care about anything they report, including the their feigned outrage over whatever controversy is currently happening. The media is interested in headlines that draw viewers, and in turn advertisers. Nothing does that better than sensationalizing headlines and outrage. Happy endings and desired outcomes don’t draw attention.
A country festival featuring past female country stars doesn’t provide headlines, especially since this generation of stars isn’t out seeking attention like a Maren Morris or Margo Price. In fact, had these two been added, media would have been stumbling over themselves to get a headline grabbing line and advertising selling consternation.
The truth of it is the lineup doesn’t provide anything more than a feel good story. And even if you’re after a destination vacation featuring a concert festival, why would you choose this one over the two other festivals in the area with better lineups? Of the acts booked that are actively touring, they are either doing smaller venues like theatres, casinos, and fairs, or are opening acts for bigger artists. A patient fan can catch them in a more intimate setting at a fraction of the cost. And this isn’t just a female artist thing. I have seen several 90s, 00s, and even some bro-country era country stars pass through at smaller venues. My daughter and I caught Dwight Yoakum not too long ago for tickets at $25 apiece.
So, while I’m not excusing media for not giving equal consideration to success as they do controversy and sensationalism, I’m not surprised. I’m also not convinced it would have had a huge impact on sales either. However well intentioned, this festival lacked the drawing power of its competitors.
February 14, 2024 @ 11:43 am
I think when you book so many of them, the fanbase overlap eventually turns adding more names into less and less of a good investment. If you already have Wynonna/Tucker/Messina/Womack, how much extra are you drawing with Evans or Clark or whoever? Would those slots be better filled by up-and-comers who’d work for cheap, and yea sure they could be female artists if you want to stick to the concept? Or by artists who’d expand the appeal instead of just piling on?
February 14, 2024 @ 8:14 am
You shouldn’t hate Mickey Guyton (or anyone else.) If female artists have a much harder time in Country than men,it may be that female Country fans love buying records from handsome dudes about whom they fantasize as boyfriends .(Perhaps Taylor Swift sensed it when she moved to pop.) This leaves us black men.I wonder how a handsome Brady sort of black Country singer would be viewed by white men and women fans.
February 14, 2024 @ 8:32 am
I’d like to say I’m “current” as far as tours/shows go. I didn’t hear about this one until it happened. I would have tried to go.
February 14, 2024 @ 8:58 am
the media failed because they wanted to. if they activist media ever got what they claim they wanted, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. They are nothing more than parasites who feed off of conflict. if there isn’t a conflict, they will make one up.
February 14, 2024 @ 9:56 am
I dont see that the media is at fault here. We booked a full vip platinum and were told there would be a variety of artist’s not just female. We waited for the update of the line up only to find out it was only going to be females. This was not what we were told and it felt like a bait and switch. Many others felt the same way and we all canceled. Key Western Fest kept our entire down payment even with the purchase of the insurance. The way it was handled, and with many people feeling the same. I’m sure will lead to next years attendance also being low. The customer experience was awful. So to blame the media is not quite the whole story the way it was presented when purchasing tickets was very misleading.
February 14, 2024 @ 10:41 am
I think the concern from presale ticket holders is a fair one. Even if the 2024 was compatible with 2023 in regards to the level of talent, booking all women is sort of a wild card move, and it put those ticket holders in a weird position. To clarify, Key Western Fest didn’t advertise that 2024 was going to be male and female. That’s just what anyone would assume because all women lineups basically never happen. But they set an expectation and then did something different.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t give the media a pass for the hypocrisy of calling out promoters for not booking enough women, and then when one does, not talking about it at all. These are two separate issues.
February 14, 2024 @ 1:29 pm
I understand and agree with your take as 2 separate issues. I believe they both could have impact on the low attendance. I know we specifically asked if there were going to be male artists and was told yes and the list was going to come out later so while they didnt publish it at first that it was all male or female they mislead many of us down that path it was both. When everyone found out it was only female artists there were many cancelations. Im just stating i dont think the media not promoting it was the only downfall to the low attendance. How they handle this whole situation was its demise along with anyone thinking of purchasing tickets next year.
February 14, 2024 @ 2:20 pm
Trigger, has anyone asked the aforementioned media outlets, even those that ran an article a day or two before the event, why they didn’t cover it or cover it earlier? I won’t discount Kyle Carter’s assertions, and I’m sure he’s more upset than anyone about it. It would just be nice to get quotes from these media outlets to perhaps lead to a better understanding of why they didn’t cover it. I don’t believe there was an intentional, media-wide blackballing of it. If anything, I would first look towards the publicist and the marketing director to see if anything changed between how they promoted Mile 0 versus KWF. Just because they threw more money behind KWF marketing doesn’t mean they threw the money in the right direction, and it would be wise to audit where and how that money was spent and to see if the major media outlets were contacted multiple times about covering it.
February 14, 2024 @ 2:44 pm
NPC,
I talked to numerous people off record for this article. Because of the nature of publicity and journalism, folks have to be very sensitive about speaking on record about these matters. What I can tell you is that the event did have a publicist, and the information about Key Western Fest was serviced to all small and major country music outlets, with personal follow ups on numerous occasions. I confirmed this in numerous ways.
Again, my guess is the main culprit for the low turnout at Key Western Fest 2024 was the all woman lineup. Could more publicity have helped? It certainly could have hurt, but maybe it would have sold low anyway. I also think that if the festival lineup would have become the national narrative it should have considering the agitation around the issue for years, I think it could have sold out. They only needed 3,700 people.
Let me put it like this: Even if Key Western Fest had sold out, it would have still been a story that the press summarily ignored this lineup. My question is, “Why?”
February 22, 2024 @ 11:55 am
Fair enough! Point well made, Trig.
February 14, 2024 @ 11:56 am
I’m not inherently against diversity/inclusion/etc. but I’m realistic, and I think part of the problem here is that one of the reasons people like festivals is that feeling of being part of a crowd of like-minded folks. This whole niche-within-a-niche thing (’90s nostalgia + all-female) conjures up an image, right or wrong, of a crowd sort of limited to couples nearing retirement age, older women (single or otherwise) on a friend-group road trip, and maybe a big subset of women who just don’t prefer to be around men for whatever reason. These multi-day, multi-artist festivals often at least partly depend on folks (largely dudes, for better or worse) young and energetic enough to think taking a long road trip, squeezing too many people into a small accommodation, and living all day and night on festival food and booze sounds like a blast. And that’s a demographic that probably doesn’t feel all that welcome at a fest like this, at least not to the extent of spending the kind of money it takes to live like that for a few days.
I’m not getting any younger myself, but I’d much prefer to see Mile 0 (which, to their credit, does as good a job as any “Texas/Red Dirt” event as making sure female artists feature prominently).
February 14, 2024 @ 2:28 pm
Media won’t push it cause it doesn’t fit the narrative that there’s no opportunities in country for women or minorities. They want to constantly run stories about injustice and keep people divided. This doesn’t fit the mold, unsuccessful or not.
February 14, 2024 @ 5:25 pm
They should turn the footage into a concert film. Like Festival Express. Or Summer of Soul.
February 15, 2024 @ 11:46 am
Imagine the outrage from the media if there was an all-male festival.
February 15, 2024 @ 5:51 pm
Country Knight,aren’t boys-only festivals the norm in Country ?
February 16, 2024 @ 10:01 am
I went to this festival because of Wynonna (i found out about it through her Facebook fan page), and then the idea of seeing Terri Clark, Jo Dee, Tanya, Sarah Evans, etc made me hop a plane to Key West from Cincinnati. Wynonna never disappoints. I was pleasantly surprised with Mickey’s performance right before Wynonna’s set…it was awesome. I only say surprised because I have seen Mickey at the Ryman and she sang ballads…the Key Western Fest performance rocked! I’m so glad I went. I had a wonderful experience there.