ADE defies calls to drop Konstantin from lineup, promises panel on sexism featuring him

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    Fri, Sep 7, 2018, 13:30
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    Resident Advisor
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  • Over 2,000 people and groups have signed a petition to remove the Giegling DJ from three parties during Amsterdam Dance Event.
  • ADE defies calls to drop Konstantin from lineup, promises panel on sexism featuring him image
  • Amsterdam Dance Event is not dropping Konstantin from the festival, despite a popular petition to remove him from the lineups of three parties during this year's event. The Giegling DJ appears on two lineups, hosted by promoters Circoloco, Loveland, NGHTDVSN and Next Monday's Hangover, during Amsterdam Dance Event, in addition to his own label's showcase. The petition, which has garnered more than 2,000 signatures in just a few days, states:
    "We—women, dancers, DJs, writers, bookers, activists and music-lovers—are tired of sexism in the electronic music industry... Overt sexism by male DJs makes the scene inaccessible and dangerous for women... Sexism is not a problem exclusive to this DJ, nor to the Giegling crew. Yet, the fact that they have failed to adequately address his views, and have continued to stand by him, should be taken seriously by everyone in our community: bookers, agents, promoters, audiences and other DJs alike. Therefore: Konstantin should not be playing during ADE. Everyone has an opportunity to make their views on this matter explicit. Silence is complicity."
    ADE, which does not organise all the parties during the annual mid-October weekend (but align themselves with these artists, promoters and parties in their promotional and press materials), have come up with an idea for handling this contested situation. It does not include dropping Konstantin from the parties. Representatives of the event tell Resident Advisor:
    "Of course we have seen the petition, we agree this is an important topic to address. Probably we will ask Konstantin to attend a panel and discuss this topic. Amsterdam Dance Event is the perfect place, and the awareness about this is becoming bigger and bigger in the music industry. We also work together with shesaid.so, the global network of women who work in the music industry."
    ADE has not shared any further details about this panel, which the petition did not ask for; nor have they publicly called on the three parties' promoters to drop him from the lineups. Andreea Magdalina, founder of shesaid.so, tells RA the group has "absolutely no involvement in this endeavour or any other sexism or diversity-related programming at ADE this year." In response to ADE's idea for a panel, Room 4 Resistance's Luz tweeted, "As if he was not taking enough space already... This is the most ridiculous, insane and clueless thing I've read in a long time." Loveland, who are hosting Konstantin with Circoloco, tell Mixmag, "I thought it was already water under the bridge... I haven't seen any proof that says he really has a hatred against women in any way or form. We shouldn't jump to conclusions." In 2017, Konstantin told Groove magazine that woman DJs are over-promoted and are often worse than men in the industry. The interviewer, Laura Aha, also explained that Konstantin believes "women who strive for a career in the male-dominated DJ business therefore lose their 'feminine qualities' and become more 'masculine.'" Discwoman tweeted yesterday that statements like this were not unusual for him: "Since we started we've never experienced a man DJ be as disparaging as Konstantin has. He said this stuff to us verbatim." RA has reached out to Konstantin, Giegling, Circoloco, Loveland, NGHTDVSN and Next Monday's Hangover, and various artists who have signed the petition. We will update this story if we hear back. Konstantin still appears on the lineups of the three ADE parties. This story has been updated to reflect the sharp increase in signatures to the petition. (This story initially reported the petition had more than 700 signatures.) The petition's founders have also released a FAQ document which covers: sexism in the industry and in general; their intentions and goals for the petition; Konstantin's actions; what they hope ADE will do; and more. Due to the sensitive nature of this story, the comments on this news piece are locked. For more information, please refer to our community guidelines.
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