Organizers of TRNSMT, Scotland’s largest music festival, are facing scrutiny for the absence of female headliners for the ninth consecutive year.
This week, TRNSMT announced Richard Ashcroft, Kasabian, and Lewis Capaldi as the headline acts for the three-day event slated for June 2026.
DF Concerts, the festival promoter, has not commented on the all-male headliner lineup, which has been described as “deeply disappointing” by female artists and music journalists.
The promoter has previously encountered criticism regarding the diversity of its lineups, with some branding efforts to promote smaller female acts at the Glasgow festival as “token gestures”.
Since its inception in 2017, TRNSMT has featured only one woman as part of a headline act – Candida Doyle, the keyboard player for Pulp, in 2023.
While female artists such as Amy Macdonald, Wolf Alice, and CMAT are scheduled to perform in 2026, none are slated as headliners.
Kasabian previously headlined the inaugural TRNSMT in 2017, and Capaldi topped the bill in 2022.
Ashcroft joins the lineup at Glasgow Green following his support of Oasis on their reunion tour.
Tamara Schlesinger, a Scottish singer and chief executive of the Hen Hoose music collective, expressed her “deep disappointment, though not surprise” at the absence of female or non-binary artists among the headliners.
“While I am pleased to see incredible artists like CMAT and Wolf Alice performing, the persistent dominance of men in the top slots is stark,” she added.
Schlesinger suggested that initiatives like Girls Girls Girls, which provides performance opportunities at King Tut’s in Glasgow, could “feel tokenistic when they are not backed by systemic, measurable commitment to equity at the highest levels.”
Schlesinger, who performs under the name MALKA, urged festival organizers to engage with the “huge number of successful, tour-ready women and non-binary artists who are fully capable of headlining major festival stages.”
She also called on DF Concerts to sign up to the Keychange 50:50 pledge, an initiative promoting gender equality in the music industry by encouraging festivals and organizations to achieve gender balance in their lineups.
In a previous effort to address the gender imbalance, TRNSMT introduced the Queen Tut’s stage in 2019, a secondary stage dedicated to emerging female talent, but it was criticized as a “box-ticking exercise” and was not included in subsequent editions of the festival.
Music journalist Lisa-Marie Ferla noted that the TRNSMT lineup has consistently raised questions about diversity, particularly when some of the top tours globally are headlined by women like Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, and Sabrina Carpenter.
“The musicians dominating the cultural conversation, and dominating with live events and ‘mega tours’, are all women, and other festivals manage to make it work,” she said.
“The TRNSMT lineup announcement has become an annual trigger for conversations about diversity in music, so I almost want to applaud their commitment to the bit.”
“This year’s choices seem particularly uninspired – Lewis Capaldi will always get a pass for the local feelgood factor, but I dare anyone to tell me Kasabian are the pinnacle of what is fresh, exciting and headline-worthy in 2026 with a straight face.”
She added, “We’ve been told that it’s a pipeline problem, and there has been a noticeable attempt by the promoters to diversify the acts that get the second biggest font in the poster over the years.”
Grassroots organization Girls Rock Glasgow supports girls in developing musical skills through its annual summer club.
A spokesperson stated that it was disappointing to see a lack of female and non-binary representation on festival lineups.
They added, “Real change won’t come from token gestures – it comes from building a strong pipeline: supporting young artists, giving them stages, airtime, and the belief that they belong there.”
“When young girls and non-binary kids see themselves on those stages they’ll know those stages are for them, and that’s when true equality in music will start to take root.”
TRNSMT organizers DF Concerts declined to respond to the criticism.
The former Highland League player was sentenced along with five other members of a drugs gang.
Across Scotland, people have fallen silent to pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in conflicts around the world.
The 22-year-old man was taken to hospital after the crash in Glasgow on Monday.
Capt Fred Rivett recalls telling the airline’s founder to stop “yakking” ahead of inaugural flight.
Mihai Nicolae Patran assaulted the 29-year-old woman as she walked along Mitchell Street in Glasgow city centre.