Men in pink, and women in charge. Disco balls bigger than your head, Christmas lights draped around rainbow jumpsuits, and fabulous wigs that make Rapunzel’s hair look like an army buzzcut. Gladrags, handbags, drag queens, and glowsticks. So many glowsticks.
Win Tickets: Take Action and Earn VIP Entry to The Mighty Hoopla
No, we’re not talking about Lembit Opik’s last birthday party. Say hello to The Mighty Hoopla — a fresh new festival that, for one day only, will be turning London’s East End into a cockney Shangri La. Except this time, women rule the roost.
The Mighty Hoopla calls itself a “new pop extravaganza”, and its lineup fits the bill. All Saints, Charlotte Church, and S Club Party join headliners Years & Years on June 4 in Victoria Park, London. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Fleur East, and Will Young are all performing, too, on a day led predominantly by female and LGBT artists.
STAGE BY STAGE breakdown of EVERYTHING that's coming to Victoria Park this summer for a Mighty Hoopla!!! pic.twitter.com/pAM4SJXf0T
— MightyHoopla (@mightyhoopla) April 19, 2017
It’s not a common sight. Around the UK, it gets harder and harder for festivals to differentiate themselves every year, especially in a music scene still dominated by male headliners. If you take men away from the bill, what’s left is, at best, bare. Women are underrepresented at the top of almost every game, and music, despite illusions of liberal bleating, is often no different.
Win Tickets: Take Action and Earn VIP Entry to The Mighty Hoopla
Charlotte Church, Welsh Amazonian and national pop treasure, will headline the Guilty Pleasures stage. Church has previously lambasted sexism in pop at a John Peel lecture delivered in 2013, accusing the industry of having a “culture of demeaning women."
In an interview with The Telegraph, she exclaimed that she’d “been a raving feminist all my life." At The Mighty Hoopla, she’s in good company.
“In an era of music festivals still being so heavily dominated by male artists, Mighty Hoopla are proud to be able to boast such a strong female line up,” John Burgess, festival organiser, told Global Citizen. “All of the stages favour female fronted acts from All Saints, Charlotte Church and Fleur East to Ya Kid K fronting Technotronic and even S Club Party being two-to-one in favour of the ladies.”
It’s a happy rarity. And isn’t that the point of pop? To make people feel happy? It’s glorious, dazzling, and awe-inspiring. It’s feminism in feathers, equality sewed through every sequin, and glitter in places you’d never expect. Just ask Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. Sometimes you’re born this way, and sometimes you need a festival to show you what the world should really be like.
It just so happens that you’re in luck — Global Citizen have partnered with the Mighty Hoopla to make your neon dreams come true. For one more week, you can earn free VIP tickets to the festival, with exclusive backstage access to DJ sets from the likes of Fearne Cotton and Gemma Cairney. All you have to do is take action on the world’s biggest issues, earn points as a Global Citizen, and then boom — welcome to the party. Be the activist you already know you are, and we can help get you through the door.
Thank us after you manage to wash the glitter off.
Win Tickets: Take Action and Earn VIP Entry to The Mighty Hoopla