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Lilith Fair proves these women can rock
July 31, 1997
Web posted at: 6:28 p.m. EDT (2228 GMT)From Correspondent Justine Simons
JONES BEACH, New York (CNN) -- When Sarah McLachlan first suggested the idea of a summer music festival including only women artists, promoters were skeptical. After a small test run last year, she convinced them to take a chance on her proposal, a summer tour she called the Lilith Fair.
McLachlan's show has proven to be everything she hoped and more. Five of the show's 30-some runs have sold out -- including the opening night concert in the 20,000-capacity Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington.
The Jones Beach concert also sold out, and women were not the only ticket buyers.
Of course, the performers are -- all of them, from headliners like Tracy Chapman and Joan Osborne to second-stage acts that vary from venue to venue -- Juliana Hatfield and Victoria Williams were the second-tier performers at Jones Beach.
"I thought it was going to be just girls," admitted one concertgoer attending Lilith's Jones Beach concert. "But there's a lotta guys here too."
Perhaps the coed audience is a sign that women artists have arrived. Or perhaps, as one woman at the concert suggested, guys showed up because their girlfriends "dragged them here."
Dragged or not, audiences are buying tickets, and Lilith Fair has attracted more media attention than any other concert tour this summer.
The popularity of female rockers is relatively new, and certainly noteworthy in a beleaguered record industry.
McLachlan says it was about time for women to get some recognition. "We're celebrating the fact that women are finally having a strong voice" in the music industry, she said.
It was her idea to hit the road and bond with other women rock musicians. She named her road show "Lilith," based on Jewish mythology that says Lilith was the first wife of Adam, and by McLachlan's interpretation, the first feminist as well.
But Lilith Fair is not a show of feminist power; rather, it is more a show of the musical power of artists like Fiona Apple and the Cardigans.
"We're not getting up there and preaching women rock and women rule, and, you know, like reading from the scum manifesto or anything like that," Apple said.
Still, young girls clearly hear a message in the music. "I think it's really great that women are finally making an impact on music," said one little girl at the show.
As the tour continues to rock its way across the country, McLachlan is already looking ahead to many more years of Lilith Fair.
And one day, she says, she may even let men headline, too.
Related story:
- McLachlan spearheads breakthrough Lilith Fair tour - June 29, 1997
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