HARD Summer attempts to tackle the lack of women on festival line-ups in new trailer

Southern California's HARD Summer event is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and released a strong showing of a line-up with Justice, Snoop Dogg, Skrillex and Boys Noize as Dog Blood and many more announced for 2017.

To follow up with the big announce, Gary Richards (the man and event promoter behind HARD) has unveiled a rather unsettling video tackling the issue of the lack of women on dance music line-ups, an issue that HARD Summer actually received positive feedback on following their line-up reveal with a hefty showing of 25 acts that identify as female billed on the roster.

The trailer for 2017, however, attempts to make light of the controversial topic by bringing in a fictional director who goes by the name of Harvey, who plays the role of "oblivious male music executive" when he calls upon male DJs Claude VonStroke, What So Not, Party Favor, DJ Snake and Kayzo to don fake breasts in order to fulfill a female headcount.

Despite the positive intent behind it, reactions have already been split to the trailer made by Agata Alexander, who has also been the director behind HARD's previous trailers that have garnered the festival attention beyond its line-ups. Some have accused it of being trans-phobic due to the DJs dressing up up casual drag, which serves as the punchline throughout much of the short video, while others have said it's a shame that the trailer didn't incorporate more actual females in a majority of the video, which only sees real women artists appear briefly, and mostly without speaking roles about six minutes into the flick. However, many fans of the festival and the artists featured are celebrating the organizer's attempt to tackle the conversation and do something about the issue at all.

Watch the trailer for HARD Summer below to see for yourself.