When was the first lilith fair

I saw so many people for the first time at Lilith. I have to go on. I mean, she was intimidating, holy crap. CROW: I used to go out and watch other bands. Chrissie Hynde and I would put on these hats that had wigs attached to them, and we would go sit out front and no one would recognize us. So I went out onstage, and I flipped her my boobs. Her drummer dropped his sticks. I brought Chrissie Hynde to her knees! I remember Erykah Badu. I remember Meshell Ndegeocello. I remember running to see Morcheeba every night.

The bugger. RAITT: On the last day of Lilith, my tour manager went out with some of the male crew to the thrift stores and bought sundresses for all the crew, and did the load-in and load-out in work boots and sundresses. For the men to be in dresses with no explanation was badass. And watching someone like that for the first time—someone whom nobody had heard of—my jaw was just on the floor. Imagine blending your voice with voices so familiar to you and looking out into the darkness, where people were waving lights and singing along, and you get a sense of the exhilaration of the moment.

Lilith came out during a time when all the music was male-dominated. Then it went the other direction, where it was all women. But suddenly the same things that made Lilith a success—including its goal of catering to all women—started to work against it. At that time Prince was hanging out with Sheryl and would show up at her shows. Ashwin, this is The Artist. Lilith Fair came to Edmonton that year, and we played on a village stage.

We got a minute set. It was pouring rain, and there was a woman sweeping huge pools of water. A bunch of our friends and my mom stayed afterward and watched all the big acts. I mean, it was really exciting. So there was always a drama. It was a crazy, frenetic day every day. I have photographs of us standing around different booths. I tried! And I realized that I will continue to fail if I try to please everybody.

Which is kind of where I got to when pro-life [activists] were picketing [our booths]. Ricky Martin exploded. Suddenly it was all about J. It was still a great turnout, but it had a different energy. The record label wanted a new record. And I have to have a life. In the decade that followed the final year of Lilith Fair, pop and hip-hop acts largely replaced singer-songwriters on the charts.

Music festivals exploded in popularity, thanks in part to newcomers such as Coachella and Bonnaroo. In , after repeated requests over the years from artists and fans alike, McLachlan agreed to headline a revival, but it failed to meet expectations. I was a punk teenager taking drugs and going to raves. I was not listening to that music. I left it completely to [Terry and Marty] to organize. As the biggest all-female festival ever in a male-dominated industry, Sarah MacLachlan was on the cover of Time and McLachlan, Fiona Apple, Sheryl Crow, and Joan Osborne were on the cover of Entertainment Weekly ; and it was the highest grossing touring festival of Still, its rah-rah spirit was met with very justified criticism.

But while many massive artistic undertakings meet criticism with defensiveness, Lilith Fair came back the second year with a lineup that was much more diverse, racially and musically. You might even consider it legendary. And that word is on our banned list, so you know we mean it! Follow Billboard. All rights reserved. The men had a nice long run of it.

But in , it was ladies first, last and in-between on stages across North America during the inaugural voyage of Lilith Fair, an all-female touring festival named for the ancient figure from Jewish folklore purported to be Adam's first, wanton wife. Conceived by gauzy Canadian alt-pop singer Sarah McLachlan as well as her management and agent, the antidote to the testosterone-fueled antics of tours such as Lollapalooza and Ozzfest was a kinder, gentler day at the amphitheater.

But it was also a loud, proud message about female solidarity and the box office power of women in the face of what was initially a hard-sell to some promoters, who had trouble at first wrapping their heads and wallets around it.

Outside of the underground Michigan Womyn's Festival -- a more radical gathering of feminists and folks singers which ran from -- the concept of putting more than one woman on a mainstream tour was, believe it or not, considered a radical notion at the time. The idea was hatched the year before, when McBride was looking for a way to coax McLachlan back on the road after an extended hiatus that followed her three-year tour in support of nearly triple-platinum breakthrough album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.

McLachlan agreed, but insisted that any dates include another female headliner -- her singer-songwriter pal Cole, about to become a household name thanks to her top 10 pop hit "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? The gang tried to get the band back together in for a Lilith reboot, which McLachlan dubbed "a disaster," due to thin attendance and the defection of some headliners Carly Simon, Kelly Clarkson, Queen Latifah, The Go-Go's and some others , which led to nearly one-third of 36 planned dates getting canceled.

But in honor of the 20th anniversary of the original run's July 5, , launch at The Gorge amphitheaters in George, Washington -- which drew more than 27, attendees -- Billboard spoke to McLachlan, McBride, Fraser, Diamond and first-year tour mate singer Tracy Bonham about the origins, impact and legacy of the Lilith Fair.

She put in for other talent and said, "They all have to be female. So with Marty booking the talent, we put a show together and she had the time of her life playing with Paula, Lisa Loeb and Suzanne Vega [during test shows in Burbank and Berkeley and a gig in Vancouver that was officialy called "Lilith" and drew more than 10,]. We we put that first show up, and it did so well, we put a smaller version on in Los Angeles and San Francisco. So then we got the branding and trademark going and officially launched it in Sarah McLachlan : I was having writer's block and I was home.

When I stay home too long, I get restless. I liked the idea of a few shows, but I didn't want to do a whole tour. Terry was like, "Why don't you do a few shows with artists you've played with before, like Paula Cole, and ask a few other women [as well]?

And the artists we asked said yes, and the promoters we worked with said it sounded fun. I had played theaters, and all of a sudden I was in front of 16, people and I thought, "This is kind of amazing. I could maybe do more of these. There certainly had been smaller events that existed that were women-centric, but this was a different idea.

McBride : It came off so authentically, we thought, "We have to do this next summer. A lot of promoters really didn't like the idea of two female artists playing together, and I'd tell Sarah that, and she'd say, "Why? We don't get it personally, we think it's a great bill.

From that point of view, Lilith was counterintuitive. Diamond : There was definitely a gap in the landscape. Women didn't dominate the charts and radio the way they do now. McBride : After the first show in Detroit [on June 14, ] there was less opposition. We really had to really prove it and we did -- which made the second year so much fun, because we weren't trying to persuade people to get involved.

Nettwerk created a rainy-day fund in case it didn't do well to help get it off the ground We didn't lack in belief, but we also didn't want to go down the drain. McLachlan : It was a natural progression, and when we went out the next year, the promoters that didn't know what we'd done said that [you can't put two women on a bill].

But that stupid attitude became our banner! That was a time of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam dominating the radio waves and festivals, and you wouldn't think twice about hearing two of those bands in a row. But if they added Tori Amos that week, they'd say, "We can't add you too, but you're in the running. So, because women were being clumped together like that we created a festival with all women clumped together. It was a grand f--k you! We would come in and follow Ozzfest around in , and they'd rip up the lawn and it would be a mud pit, and people were like, "Thank God you came along!

There was a lot of angst in festivals back then. Diamond : I wasn't really surprised by the reaction and success, because I was confident we'd put together a good lineup. And there were certainly challenges There's the ongoing agenda item dealing with matters of cultural and racial differences. There was commentary about the festival being too white. It certainly started that way, and our intention wasn't to be that way. We approached several other artists that passed, or it didn't work out at that time.

McLachlan : My first reaction was I wanted to do this because it was so much fun! It was, "How exciting. Let's do this for a summer. Because it was created out of a true intention, a good intention. It was not premeditated, there was no grand scheme behind it other than it was a lot of fun and we get to do this every day.

I love playing live and touring and sharing the stage