Mysteryland 2018 locks Paul van Dyk, Sven Väth, Fatboy Slim, Hardwell, Green Velvet, more

Dutch festival Mysteryland has locked an absolutely baffling line-up of over 300 acts from across the dance music spectrum for this year’s edition, running between 24th and 26th August.

With names including Fatboy Slim, recent DJ Mag North America cover star Paul van Dyk, techno legend Sven Väth, Green Velvet, EDM star Hardwell, Like Mike and more scattered across 17 stages it is shaping up to be one of the largest European dance music festivals of the year. There will be stages dedicated to a wide spread of genres from big room, hardstyle and EDM to house, techno, disco, R&B, hip-hop and trap as well as camping facilities and a “Healing Garden” where activities such as yoga and dance meditation will be hosted.

On a line-up that boasts over 300 acts, there are a total of nine non-male names on the bill. Of the seven female DJs booked for the festival, only three of them appear on the larger stages: Sexy By Nature, Sven Väth’s Cocoon stage and the Thunderdome hardcore stage. There are two female MCs booked for the festival. There are also two performance & activity groups that include non-male performers and curators. 

When approached for comment by DJ Mag, Carina Kornfeind, Event Director of Mysteryland said, "When booking our artists, we objectively look at the wishes of our fans, without looking at gender, origin or other social demographics of DJs. We program a line up based on the quality and availability of the artists and their fit within our musical program and the genres we represent during each festival edition. The number of female artists at Mysteryland varies from year to year. This year, our festival line up holds 9 female acts. Our camping line up is not yet revealed. It is still a fact that the global Dj market is a widely male-dominated business which also can be seen in the worldwide DJ top rankings, as well as the line ups of all big international dance festivals, such as Mysteryland."

Last week, 45 major international music festivals pledged to tackle gender imbalance on line-ups, striving to achieve at least a 50/50 gender balance across line-ups by 2022.

Last March, one year on from DJ Mag’s Women in Dance Music issue, digital editor Charlotte Lucy Cijffers wrote about the current position of women in the industry and discussed the changes that still must be made in order for gender equality in the community to be achieved.

In February this year, Ministry of Sound hosted their first He.She.They party in order to promote inclusivity in clubbing. In January, Steve Aoki said in an interview that more needs to be done by male DJs to make room for females in the industry.

If you want to have a look at the full festival line-up you can do so here.