By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
July 10, 1997
Sarah McLachlan knew it was time to start a music festival that celebrated female artists when she discussed the possibility of having Paula Cole open for her and a promoter told her that two women on the same bill would be too . . . well, you know . . . female.
That kind of prejudice spurred the Canadian musician to found the all-women (or female-fronted) Lilith Fair music festival tour. And ironically enough, the tour, in its debut year, is attracting more fans than the testosterone-packed Lollapalooza and H.O.R.D.E. fests.
The fest, named for a mythological character in Jewish folklore, appears to be this summer’s sure thing.
The Lilith Fair hits the Chicago area Aug. 9 at the New World Music Theatre in Tinley Park. Besides McLachlan, who is the only artist playing every date on the seven-week, 35-city tour, the World lineup includes Emmylou Harris, Jewel, the Indigo Girls and Lisa Loeb. Some tickets still are available through Ticketmaster.
“The (World) concert has been selling consistently well since tickets went on sale May 31,” said Mike Flynn, marketing manager at Ticketmaster. “It’s selling better than either Lollapalooza or H.O.R.D.E.,” neither of which feature any major female artists.
“The Lilith Fair tour is doing very well all over the country,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of the concert trade publication Pollstar. “In terms of the festival package tours, Lilith is going to be the big winner. As to why it’s working, I think it’s long overdue and it’s offering fans something different.
“What I’m hearing is that there’s a 2-1 ratio of women to men at the shows, whereas something like Lollapalooza has the exact opposite ratio. So the tour is appealing to a different marketing niche. Actually, women have been doing so well over the past few years that this tour would’ve done very well last year or the year before if somebody had tried.”
The success of the Lilith Fair’s inaugural year dispels any notions that female musicians can’t sell concert tickets. The popularity of Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, Erykah Badu and Fiona Apple, as well as female-fronted groups such as Garbage, No Doubt, the Cranberries and Republica, attests to that.
Though there is no huge name to anchor the Lilith Fair bill, the tour features a revolving door of about three dozen artists (Crow, Apple, Osborne, Cole, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Tracy Chapman, the Cardigans, Victoria Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, etc.) popping up as their schedules allow.
“The fact that the tour was put together by a respected artist rather than a radio station attracted a high caliber of acts,” Bongiovanni said. “I think many of the acts are playing for less money than they would make on their own, but they’re doing it because they want to participate.”
Of the men she’s seen at Lilith, McLachlan told the Associated Press, “Maybe they got dragged there by their girlfriends. But . . . they had smiles on their faces.”
