Norway’s biggest “hardstyle” festival – one out of 59 artists is a woman – NRK Culture and entertainment

What is allegedly Norway’s biggest “hardstyle” festival is being held in Sandvika in Bærum this weekend.

You might be thinking: “What is hardstyle?”

– Hardstyle is a genre within electronic music, which arose as a mixture between hard trance and hardcore electronica, explains presenter of NRK MP3, Tamanna Agnihotri.

She herself has heard a lot about hardstyle, especially in training.

– It is a style of music that runs at a fairly high BPM (Beats per minute, or beats per minute). 150 BPM or up. This means that it goes quite quickly. There are hard beats that go in a repetitive style, she says.

Only én woman on the lineup

For some, the music, which consists of a lot bass might be tiring. That is not the case for Andri Papanicolas, who is responsible for marketing at the Hardstyle DNA festival.

– For me, it’s not tiring to listen to. Hardstyle gives me a lot of energy. I can listen to a hardstyle song and get tears in my eyes, says Papanicolas.

For the second year in a row, the Hardstyle DNA festival is being held.

There are 58 men and one woman in the lineup.

The Italian DJ Anime is the only woman playing at the festival.

– It is a very male-dominated genre, explains Papanicolas.

– The women play “too hard”

In recent years, there has been a lot of focus on equality among the artists who play at Norwegian festivals.

Why are there so many women compared to men at this festival?

– I will give you a fairly simple answer to that. That’s because the ladies are usually a bit tougher in this genre, and the scenes in Norway aren’t that tough yet.

So the women in this genre play even harder music than the men do, according to Papanicolas.

So hard that it hasn’t really caught on in Norway yet.

The audience wants hard music, but not quite as hard as what many female DJs in the genre play, she explains further.

There is a tendency for women to play even more «beats per minute».

Tamanna Agnihotri thinks it may be true that the women play harder than the men do.

– If you, as a woman, want to appear in such a male-dominated genre, then you may have to go a little extra. Hardstyle is certainly one of those genres where you have to be harder than the hardest.

– Still not equal at Norwegian festivals

Equality at Norwegian festivals is not as good as many people think it is, says general manager of Balansekunst, Joakim Aadland.

Balansekunst is an association that works for a more equal and diverse cultural life.

Aadland refers to a count carried out by Aftenposten last year, which shows that the proportion of women at Norwegian festivals is 25 per cent.

He believes that the festivals must prioritize a diverse lineup, but says that equality in the music industry in general should also be looked at.

– For example, we also have to look at how many female artists win Spellemann and how Spotify is structured. The entire music industry must together ensure a good boost, says Aadland.

Andri Papanicolas says the festival will work to get more female artists on the lineup in future years.

– The way the trend is now, I think we will have more ladies on the lineup in the future, because we notice that music with a faster tempo is becoming more and more popular.