Heroines of Sound 2026 Curator: 'True Gender Equality Is Still a Long Way Off'
Bettina Wackernagel has been running Heroines of Sound long enough to know that progress in the electronic and experimental music world moves at a pace that would embarrass a glacier. In a recent interview with Groove, the festival's curator didn't mince words: the industry has made noise about gender parity for years, but the structural reality hasn't caught up to the rhetoric.
The 2026 Edition
This year's Heroines of Sound brings together a lineup that continues the festival's focus on women and non-binary artists working in electronic and electroacoustic composition. Among the names: Japanese avant-pop pioneer Akiko Yano, composer Iris ter Schiphorst, Berlin-based sound artist Midori Hirano, and METOODJS — whose name alone functions as a political statement before a single note is played.
The festival, which has been running in Berlin since 2014, occupies a specific space in the landscape: not a club night, not a mainstream festival with a diversity checkbox, but a dedicated platform built around the idea that the work of female and non-binary composers deserves sustained, serious attention.
What Wackernagel Actually Said
The headline quote cuts through any self-congratulatory framing that often surrounds these conversations. According to Wackernagel, the distance between where the industry is and where it needs to be remains significant. Festivals add female artists to lineups. Labels sign a few more women. The discourse has shifted. But the underlying power structures — who programs, who produces, who gets booked for the headline slot without having to fight twice as hard — those haven't fundamentally changed.
It's the kind of assessment that tends to make press officers uncomfortable and everyone else quietly relieved that someone said it out loud.
The Artists
Akiko Yano's inclusion is notable. A figure who has worked across experimental pop, electronic music, and avant-garde composition since the late 1970s, she represents a lineage that often gets written out of genre histories dominated by male names. Iris ter Schiphorst brings a background rooted in contemporary classical and electroacoustic work. Midori Hirano has built a steady presence in the Berlin experimental scene over the past decade. METOODJS operate at the intersection of activism and club culture.
It's a lineup built on substance rather than optics — which, given the context of Wackernagel's comments, seems intentional.
Why It Still Matters
Heroines of Sound exists partly because the mainstream hasn't solved the problem it claims to be solving. Every year there are panels, pledges, and percentage targets. Every year the numbers shift slightly. And every year, festivals like this one still need to exist to provide a space that wasn't going to appear on its own.
Wackernagel's frankness is the most useful thing about the interview. The gap between symbolic progress and structural change is where most conversations about gender in music quietly die. She isn't letting it die quietly.
What is Heroines of Sound?
Heroines of Sound is a Berlin-based festival founded in 2014 dedicated to electronic and electroacoustic music by women and non-binary artists. It is curated by Bettina Wackernagel.
Who is performing at Heroines of Sound 2026?
The 2026 edition features Akiko Yano, Iris ter Schiphorst, Midori Hirano, and METOODJS, among others.
What did curator Bettina Wackernagel say about gender equality in music?
In an interview with Groove magazine, Wackernagel stated that true gender equality in the music industry is still a long way off, noting that structural change has not kept pace with the discourse around diversity.
Who is Akiko Yano?
Akiko Yano is a Japanese musician and composer who has worked across experimental pop, electronic music, and avant-garde composition since the late 1970s.
Why does a festival like Heroines of Sound still need to exist?
According to its curator, the mainstream music industry has not resolved systemic gender imbalances despite years of public commitments. Dedicated platforms remain necessary to provide space and visibility that wouldn't otherwise materialise.