McLachlan spearheads breakthrough Lilith Fair tour

From CNN Interactive Writer Kristin Lemmerman

ATLANTA (CNN) -- When Sarah McLachlan's first album, "Touch," went gold in Canada in 1988, there was no such thing as Lollapalooza, and the music industry wouldn't even consider organizing a concert featuring two "girl bands" side by side.

Clearly, things have changed. As McLachlan releases her newest album, "Surfacing," Lollapalooza has just kicked off its seventh tour, and its success has created the momentum for a spate of similar multi-band outdoor music festivals. Among the flood of such summer festivals, one of the most praised, the most eagerly anticipated, is the Lilith Fair, co-sponsored by McLachlan. Novelty of novelties, it features only female soloists or female-fronted bands.

"When I was touring three years ago and wanted to put Paula Cole on the bill with me, promoters were saying, 'We can't put two women on the bill,'" McLachlan said. "Now the climate has changed dramatically."

Spurred to action in part by Lollapalooza's lineups, which since the 1992 have featured few or no female artists, McLachlan created the Lilith Fair. The name Lilith was suggested by a friend; in medieval Jewish folklore Lilith was Adam's first wife, "and when she wanted to be treated equal to him and he refused she said, 'well, OK, see you later then.'

"I thought that was very perfect. A little poke," she said.

To counter any negative connotations from the name Lilith, McLachlan added Fair to the name -- "fair being equal, fair being beautiful, and fair being ... a fair," she said.

So is Lilith Fair a male-bashing party? Quite the opposite, the artist says. "It's merely about celebrating the fact that women have a powerful voice and are using it for a great thing. And I think that's a great reason to celebrate."

Test run helped McLachlan 'make a point'

Last year, Lilith Fair had a test run, playing four dates with Suzanne Vega, Paula Cole, Patti Smith, Aimee Mann and Lisa Loeb. This year, the tour will include 37 dates throughout the United States and Canada, starting July 5 in George, Washington, with main stage acts including Jewel, Joan Osborne, Lisa Loeb, Paula Cole, Tracy Chapman and the Indigo Girls. McLachlan herself is the only fixed act; the rest have agreed to play as many dates as their schedules permit, from two dates to three weeks.

Lilith's second stage will highlight less well-known acts. "A lot of the main stage acts are fairly soft, so we're trying to make the B stage aggressive. I don't want it to be a folk festival, you know?" McLachlan said.

The tour has corporate sponsorship, including Borders, Inc., which will act as the on-site music retailer, and will give a portion of its CD sales profits from Lilith artists going to Lifebeat, an AIDS group, and the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN). A dollar from every ticket sold will also go to a local charity in every city; McLachlan said she expects the total donation from ticket sales to be about $200,000.

McLachlan hopes Lilith Fair will become an annual event, but says future incarnations won't necessarily exclude men. "The first year was, definitely. I really wanted to make a point to the music industry and to the public at large" that women artists were not going to fade away, she said.

And, she said, part of her motivation for creating the festival was selfish. "I rarely get to see any of the people I love play live and most of those people, most of those musicians, happen to be women."

However, she says, "there's amazing male talent out there that I want to see. I'm sure people will have lots to say about that, too," she said, smiling, "but it's my idea, and I can make it what I want!"

Related sites:

• The Official Lilith Fair web site
• POLLSTAR -- The Concert Hotline