Since its inception at The Arches, Pressure has been synonymous with Glasgow dance music. In 2013, this brainchild of Slam DJs Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle plus Soma Records director Dave Clarke added another string to their bow, joining forces with Electric Frog to create Riverside. This electronic music festival on the banks of the Clyde is now a cornerstone in Glasgow’s club culture and celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. 

Looking at Riverside’s inaugural poster, a wider story unfolds about dance music’s changing landscape: of 15 artists listed, Nina Kraviz was the only woman. Fast forward a decade, and the 2023 line-up includes the likes of Avalon Emerson, Sherelle, Taahliah, Eclair Fifi and Paula Temple, signalling a dissolving of the boys’ club. ‘The representation of women in electronic music is a lot better than it was,’ says Feena, a Miss World resident playing her first Riverside. ‘When I was first going out in 2011, I went to a lot of dubstep and deep house nights. I remember feeling I had to justify my being in that space.’ 

According to music networking organisation female:pressure, the proportion of women performing at electronic music festivals rose from 9.2% to 26.9% between 2012 and 2021. Non-binary representation increased from 0.4% to 1.3%. It’s a modest jump, but an encouraging one. ‘It’s not acceptable any more to have 80% male line-ups, or your token female name as a one-hour opening slot,’ says Feena. ‘But there’s still a lot more to do in terms of women running nights and creating those spaces for themselves.’ 

Women and non-binary-led nights (Club Sylkie and FUSE are two prime examples) are multiplying in Scotland, prioritising inclusive bookings and zero-tolerance policies towards harassment. Feena hopes these club nights will inspire more non-male promoters. ‘Then women are in control of this space,’ she says. ‘Men can be as feminist as they want, and they can be amazing allies, but you can’t have men running the show forever.’

EHFM, the community radio station where Feena is co-director, leads by example. Two of three paid staff members are women, and the team carefully monitors their residents’ diversity; a fresh approach compared with statistics released last year which revealed that 1% of dance music getting radio play is made by women and non-binary producers. ‘I think it’s about the amount of women producing,’ says Feena. ‘I felt very intimidated trying to start producing music, and I imagine a lot of other women feel the same. There’s a lot of internalised impostor syndrome.’ She credits groups like Saffron Records, who get women producing thanks to dedicated workshops. 

It was a Grassroots Glasgow workshop run by Sarra Wild that gave Plantainchipps her first entry into DJing. Wild later booked her for OH141 and Jupiter Artland’s 2021 Resident Rising programme. Nowadays, Plantainchipps finds herself embedded in a tight-knit music community, with a Clyde Built Radio residency and regular back-to-backs with VAJ.Power and Junglehussi. She says that camaraderie has played a ‘huge role’ in her career. ‘The community I’m part of in Glasgow has not only shaped what I play, but also how I feel when playing. Knowing they’re watching is so uplifting.’

It’s also been crucial for encouraging Black women to jump behind the decks, which Plantainchipps is seeing more of. ‘Sometimes you need to see somebody do it, then you think, actually, I can give it a go,’ she says. ‘Also the space to have Black women that don’t necessarily play R&B or whatever is expected; if they want to play techno, they can.’ 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement highlighted discrimination in dance music, with journalist Marcus Barnes estimating that 18% of festival acts in 2019 were Black. He pointed out that while artists such as Sherelle, Carista and Honey Dijon have increased Black women’s visibility, promoters frequently recycle the same familiar names. ‘There came a point where I felt like I was hitting the glass ceiling, because I was only getting booked in Glasgow,’ says Plantainchipps. ‘It’s a matter of promoters not going with the safest option. Take a risk, even if it’s just one person.’

This year will be Plantainchipps’ second time at Riverside: it was her first festival booking in 2021. ‘It never occurred to me that I would fit the bill for that kind of festival,’ she says. ‘There were so many people I knew on the line-up as well. It was the whole community showing up to Riverside and cheering each other on. It was a big achievement for a lot of us.’

Riverside Festival, Glasgow, Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 June.