“Please, man and woman, let’s get away!” says a message on Facebook. “This is AR Festibala! Sorry, the Azkena Rock Festival. Two days, three scenarios, more than 24 groups and no woman on the stage. Last Tour, the organizer, will receive over 200,000 euros of public money. The City of Vitoria-Gasteiz does not require them anything, not even a minimum level of equality. It's embarrassing!" The spark will discover the gunpowder in the area, as of February 7, Dorleta Rata Jones will be responsible for disseminating the complaint on social networks.

And the issue will come to the Culture Committee of the City of Vitoria-Gasteiz on February 14, with the councillor of EH Bildu Ane Aristi. The Councillor for Culture, Estibaliz Canto (PSE-EE), will say that she has seen people worried about the case, but also “to disqualification” which, in her opinion, shows that the complaint about Azkena Rock “is well done”. Although the festival poster is closed and in time to take action, they will take advantage of the fact that the City Council has not yet signed the sponsorship contract for the 2017 edition and that this agreement puts the conditions on the organizers: clauses will be introduced to give a more dignified space to women, that will be one of the criteria for the festival to receive 270,000 euros.

These clauses do not provide for female quotas. Ane Aristi explained that they do not ask for the festival’s cartel heads to be women, but they do not just ask for their work to become a server. “For example, the festival has three scenarios and each has the name of a dead musician: they are all men,” explained EH member Bildu, remembering that in the scenarios it plays mainly who is visible and who is not in this type of events.

Challenged organiser

So far everything was in order. Moreover, as explained by Canto in the Culture Committee, by February 14 the City Council talked about these conditions with the company Last Tour, which organizes the festival, and that “has understood perfectly” the City Council’s position. “Since the festival there has been no problem, quite the opposite.” The sweet and romantic ballad starts to challenge in the newspaper El Correo the following day: In the face of the statements of Alfonso Santiago, director of the azkena Rock Festival, the Consistory says in relation to the clauses that the Consistory wants to put: “No one can guarantee that they are complied with.”

After stating that until the last moment they have tried to bring Heart, Joan Jett, Neko Case, Tori Amos and Patti Smith, Santiago has pointed out that they will have “sensitivity, interest and positive attitude”, but also to bear in mind that 95% of the rock industry is made up of men: “If this were a pop music festival, it would be much easier. But what can we do? We work in many negotiations to get concerts that are not done later, although we agree that women have a more important role in this area.” Blondie and Juliette Lewis went through the festival as examples of the festival’s politics, or were the concerts of Imelda May and Lucinda Williams in the last edition of the Bilbaíno festival.

After these explanations have been completed, the complaints are: “Everyone misses and judges this matter without knowing its origin.” It regrets that the complainants have not consulted them before making the debate public. And as a final note, he added that he is “surprised by the lack of foundation of this debate”.

Sex, mansplaining and rock’n’roll

It is not only the attitude of the organization, anyone will realize the issue by reading those who have thought in social networks and in the press. Despite the comments that are clearly against parity, there are many comments from the people who have pulled the pods out to those who believe that women should be more visible. The phrase "this debate has nothing to do with music" has probably been the most widely used argument in recent weeks to defend the azkena Rock poster. But not the only one. “They will suspect that the next woman to hire the festival is plugged in,” said, for example, the musical critic Oscar Cubillo. For his part, the head of the Helldorado room in Vitoria-Gasteiz said about the criteria he manages in the organization of the concerts: “I don’t look at you if you are women or men, Basques or Norwegians: I’m looking for quality” – then, yes, you have admitted that the case of a festival that receives public money may be different.

They're all men. Are we dealing with mansplaining, doctor? This machist attitude was defined by Lily Rothman in The Atlantic magazine as: “Explain something, without taking into account that the listener knows more about the subject than the person who explains it. It is the usual behavior of men with women.” Rebeca Solnit wrote Men Explain Things To Me with the intention of delving into the concept, among other things, emphasizing the generalization of giving less credibility to the opinions of women versus those of men.

Reviewing the forms of argumentation we have mentioned here, and others of the same nature, the mansplaining test is positive in the media controversy about Azkena Rock: there are men who want to speak “only” of music, convinced that abstract beings play instruments, and not people who have gender, social class, etc. ; the critic does not believe that the quality of plugging can be added to male musicians, to women; with these arguments that collapse before a little analysis, it has been attempted to downplay a complaint made by women. And a unique opportunity has been lost, assuming that there is much to be improved in this field, to adopt more constructive attitudes.