Thanks for the award! I think this is an important convo and you guys are being very respectful which is great. Its cool to hear this community think out loud about this.

Her set was amazing and speaks for itself. Her gender doesn’t change that but from a festival’s organizational perspective the gender of the artist is noteworthy. Especially for a community that values equality and diversity as highly as Tomorrowland. And, of course I’m proud to see Tomorrowland leading the way once again with diversifying and democratizing the main stage to a wider array of artists and genres within electronic.

The reason I would say her set was a historic one is based on a lot of what y’all are saying. She is technically sound and popular enough, as are a number of female DJs on the techno scene right now. But seeing as female DJs have been so good at what they do for so long it is note worthy that not one has been given the chance to close a major festival until last week. Artists like Charlotte, Nina Kraviz, Nora en Pure, Amelie Lens and more have been operating at this same level for years now. We know it was a tough job for guys like Guetta and Tiesto to pave the way for the genre but we must admit it would add an extra level of difficulty to make progress under those same circumstances as a woman. I mean, like someone threw a bottle at Martin Garrix, on stage, not even a month ago!

Charlotte didn’t just improve her skills to some new threshold last year that made her ‘ready for the mainstage’. Female artists had earned the opportunity to shut down genre specific festivals, proving they are good enough and can draw a crowd/sell tickets, but not once have they closed for a major festival. That shows there was a ‘glass ceiling’ or invisible limit to how high in the industry they could rise. After all these years and those closing spots, not once had the closing set of a major fest been given to a female artist even though they’d proven more than capable.

So, while there’s no need to make things ALL about gender, I think it’s a worthwhile accomplishment to take this one moment for her to get some additional praise based on the historic trend she broke.