TRNSMT 2025: 20 BEST UK & IRISH FEMALE-FRONTED BANDS TO BOOK RIGHT NOW! END THE SAUSAGE FEST HEADLINE ONCE AND FOR ALL |

God, I am so tired of writing the same piece every year and seeing literally nothing change. Ten years of shouting “Where the hell are the women headliners?” and in 2025 it’s still an absolute sausage-fest. TRNSMT, mate, you should be mortified right now.

We all know the system’s rigged, bookers, promoters, the whole lad’s club pipeline. Pretending it isn’t is total bollocks. But what actually exhausts me is the idea that the only way we ever fix this is by treating brilliant women like a charity box we have to tick forever. “Must have 30% women or it’s problematic.” Look, I’m not against targets right now, force it, smash it, whatever works, but that can’t be the endgame, can it?

Every summer, like clockwork, TRNSMT drops the big poster, and it’s the same parade of blokes who’ve been closing Glasgow Green since their balls dropped in 1997. Kasabian again? Don’t get me wrong, they are great live and a phenomenal band, but come on, they’ve headlined more times than I’ve had hot dinners. At this point, you may as well rename the thing “Lads & Legacy Acts Ft. Some Blokes You Vaguely Remember From 2004” and be done with it.

Kasabian (Abi Chilton/Northern Exposure)

There are SO many UK/Irish women killing it in guitars-and-big-choruses music right now that TRNSMT could easily have a main stage looking 50/50 without even breaking a sweat. And yet every year it’s still 80 % blokes with guitars they bought in 2004. Make it make sense.

Here’s a proper homegrown (or next-door) list of all-female/female-fronted acts that could tear the main stage a new one in 2026, support or higher:

Wet Leg — Isle of Wight chaos queens, sarcastic bangers that’d have everyone losing their minds by 3pm.
The Last Dinner Party — theatrical London drama, massive sing-alongs, corsets flying everywhere. (BOOKED FOR 2026 )
Wolf Alice — legit UK festival royalty, Ellie Rowsell could follow Biffy and still steal the whole weekend. (BOOKED FOR 2026 – HIGH ON FRIDAY)
The Big Moon — all-female, stupidly fun live, hooks bigger than the Clyde.
Nova Twins — heaviest attitude on the bill, proper mosh-pit starters.
Dream Wife — punk as you like, the crowd would be a total riot.
ALT BLK ERA — Nottingham sisters bringing nu-metal energy, fresh MOBO winners.
Honeyblood — Glasgow’s own Stina, gritty indie-rock homecoming cheers guaranteed.
Lucia & The Best Boys — more Glasgow glam brilliance, already a Scottish fest fave.
NewDad — Irish shoegaze beauties, dreamy but hit like a truck. (BOOKED FOR 2026)
The Mysterines — Lia’s voice is pure Liverpool fire, raw riffs everywhere.
Crawlers — Holly screaming post-punk truths, instant circle pit.
Pillow Queens — Irish indie-rock anthems that’d have everyone hugging and crying.
Beabadoobee — UK-based bedroom pop gone stadium, the TikTok kids would storm the barriers.
English Teacher — clever Leeds post-punk, Mercury-nominated buzz. (BOOKED FOR 2026)
HotWax — Hastings teens playing grunge like it’s 1994.
Lambrini Girls — Brighton punk spitfire.
Coach Party — Isle of Wight indie bite.
Brooke Combe — Scottish soul-rock belter.
CMAT — chaotic Irish pop-country goddess who’d own the entire weekend (also BOOKED FOR 2026 – they literally took five from this list and still couldn’t find one woman worthy of the big letters at the top??)

Five of these are already on the 2026 lineup, and two more (Perrie + Amy Macdonald) are in the same lane. The talent is RIGHT THERE. Booking women lower down isn’t “progress”, it’s ticking boxes. Put one of them in the actual headline slot for once.

Coach Party (Maggie Zhu/Northern Exposure)

That list is literally just the guitar-leaning ones, there are SO MANY other women out there right now who could properly leave 50,000 people sobbing into their overpriced pints, Olivia Rodrigo (already headlining Bonnaroo ffs), Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Lola Young, Raye, Lana, Gracie Abrams, CMAT, Reneé Rapp, the list is longer than the queue for the long-drop at Glasto on Sunday night.

Bookers love wheeling out the same five male legacy acts because “they sell tickets” and “there’s no female equivalent”, except there is, they’re just ten years younger and apparently scary. It’s just pure laziness, it’s beyond boring, and we are all crying out for something fresh. Give us one day that’s half as female as the crowd itself and watch the place explode. But no, instead, women get shoved onto the “women & non-binary” stage at 3pm. On day one, when half the crowd’s still stuck on the M8. Tokenism so blatant you can hear the diversity officer patting themselves on the back, “Look! We gave the girls their own tent with bean bags and everything!”

Wet Leg (Morris Shamah/Northern Exposure)

We’ve tried polite think-pieces, angry think-pieces, hashtags, petitions, and actual data showing women sell tickets when you let them headline… nothing. Bookers just stick their fingers in their ears, going “la la la can’t hear you, already promised the slot to some reunion band nobody asked for.”

Ten years. I’ve aged like milk screaming into this void, and every single announcement, the poster still looks like a stag-do guest list.

So here’s the deal, you absolute cowards hiding behind “commercial viability” (translation, too scared to tell a bunch of dads their favourite band isn’t closing for once), put women on the main stage. The big one. The fireworks-budget-that-could-end-world-hunger one. Not a token slot every four years when you’re feeling brave. The actual top of the bill.

Honestly, I’m knackered with it. DF Concerts, do you hate women? While we wait through their radio silence, someone pour me a decent pint and wake me up when TRNSMT finally grows a pair.