LUCIDMEDIA

Why Lilith Fair Matters, and when is it coming back?

Written by Nadine Bachan Tuesday, 26 May 2009 11:35

Concert tours and music festivals are wonderful, producing year-long anticipations for fans of all genres of music across the world. There are countless annual events to look forward to: The famous Reading, Leeds, and T in the Park festivals are held in the UK. The US, meanwhile, has SXSE, Lollapalooza, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and the Ozzfest (though it’s been cancelled this year by Ozzy himself). But in Toronto we are particularly fortunate as our fair city has been host to several grand events yearly including NxNE, Canadian Music Week and Edgefest.

As each festival rolls in and out of our lives, I began to wonder about one particular festival which was brought into the limelight, both by its excellent performers and it’s equally excellent cause, only to vanish a couple of years into its run. While so many other events continue to entertain us year after year, why had the Lilith Fair stopped, after only three years, in 1999? It was a festival like no other we’ve seen, before or since.

So you can imagine my surprise and subsequent happiness when both Nettwerk founder Terry McBride, and the news headlines on Sarah McLachlan’s official website, announced that Lilith Fair will indeed return for a two-week tour in Europe and Britain next year. Should you visit the official website, www.lilithfair.com, you will be greeted by a golden-beige screen and a simple message: “Lilith Fair, returning in 2010...”

That was enough to spark my interest. So, to get you all abuzz about the imminent return, here’s a look back at how one woman’s frustrations to be heard and respected quickly grew into one of music’s most memorable festivals.

The Lilith Fair began with humble, but determined beginnings: two women on one tour. Specifically, those two women were Canadian pop/folk singer Sarah McLachlan and her American contemporary Paula Cole. When McLachlan realized that concert promoters did not want to book two female performers together, she took it upon herself to organize her tour the way she wanted, and invited Cole along.

At the time, McLachlan was launching Surfacing to success, while Cole was still enjoying the triumph of her This Fire album. Together they created a successful tour together, and at some of their venues named their act “Lilith Fair.” This spunky title for some of McLachlan/Cole’s tour dates soon evolved into a novel idea: an event to showcase women in song and to celebrate women everywhere.

But who is this famed Lilith? According to certain sources, the name came from the Jewish myth about the woman proclaimed to be the first wife of Adam. As the story goes, Lilith was exiled from the Garden of Eden after she refused to be submissive to her husband. Then, when she banished she became a demon, while Adam was granted a new wife, Eve. In order to ensure Eve’s compliance to her husband, she was created out of Adam’s rib.

Lilith’s demonization was furthered to include stories of harm against children and young couples. However, modern scholars and feminists have re-evaluated her as a positive figure, one whose parable of struggle to make men and women equal. She’s become a symbol of great strength and defiance against patriarchy and made her the perfect namesake for this event.

The first Lilith Fair kicked off in the summer of 1997 in Washington. Some of the best female musicians of the day came out to perform at various dates and venues. Among them were Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, Jewel, Meredith Brooks, and The Cardigans (whose lead singer is Nina Persson). The performers travelled across the United States and made two stops in Canada that August — Toronto and Montreal. The tour moved through thirty-six cities in all. A two-disc live album, Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music, was released after the tour, with half of the profits going to several organizations.

The following year brought even more performers, across all genres, to centre stage. The 1998 edition of Lilith Fair included twenty-three artists performing at any given stop, with a total of over thirty bands and artists in the rotation. The acts included Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Sinéad O'Connor, Missy Elliot, Wild Strawberries, Bonnie Raitt, and Holly Cole.

It also brought about a Volume 2 CD, and the promise of Lilith Fair ’99, which was by far the largest of all three editions. The festival was organized into three stages, and again with numerous artists performing various dates. The new participants were even more varied including: Sandra Bernhard, Bif Naked, Dido, Mya, Aimee Mann, Christina Aguilera, Tegan and Sara, and Nelly Furtado, just to name a few. The 1999 Lilith Fair played forty shows in thirty-three cities, beginning in Vancouver and ending in Edmonton.

All-in-all, it was Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Loeb, Indigo Girls and a few others who came out to participate in all three years of the festival. Additionally, much of the money earned through Lilith Fair went to support several women’s charities across North America, totalling an estimated 10 million dollars. The festival itself brought global attention to women’s issues and helped female artists gain serious credibility and recognition in the music industry, not just for themselves but for women singer/songwriters in general.

The possible end of Lilith Fair was marked at a press conference Sarah McLachlan held in April 1999 before the third year of the event even began. She expressed clearly that that year’s festival would be the last for a long time, if not ever. And after 1999’s Lilith Fair wrapped, McLachlan (possibly exhausted from touring, promoting her music and organizing the three massive Lilith Fair festivals) refocused her energies onto other projects and did not release a new record until 2003. It was her fifth studio album, Afterglow.

In 2004, a special DVD of live performances, interviews, and backstage glimpses over the three years of the festival was released. But now, after 10 years, the festival is on its way to being resurrected. Details on performers and venues have not yet been released, but I am sure fans everywhere are itching to find out.

Will Lilith Fair come back to North America? Who will be joining Sarah in the line-up? What will the Lilith Fair of the 21st century turn out to be? Stay tuned.