Lilith Fair

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Lilith Fair was a festival - tour , which by the singer Sarah McLachlan was founded and occurred on the only solo artists and female-headed band. The tour took place from 1997 to 1999 and 2010. The name comes from the Jewish legend about Lilith .

background

After a festival summer in 1996 that was dominated by male artists, Sarah McLachlan decided to organize a festival tour in which only female artists take part. Another reason was the refusal of various organizers to book two artists for an event. McLachlan's approach was to organize a three-year “Girliepalooza” (based on the Lollapalooza ). She wanted to prove that an event with only female artists can work both musically and commercially. The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival already existed , but on the one hand it was not organized as a tour and on the other hand it was not aimed at a mixed audience regardless of age, gender and sexual orientation.

It was planned that the tour would take place at around 30 different venues in the United States . Changing artists should appear during the eight-week tour. McLachlan had already tested her idea in four locations in the summer of 1996, two in Canada and two in the USA, and she and her manager discovered that this project could work. In addition to McLachlan, Patti Smith , Emmylou Harris , Lisa Loeb , Paula Cole , Aimee Mann , Suzanne Vega and Michelle McAdorey took part in this test tour .

The organizers of the Lilith Fair were Sarah McLachlan, Marty Diamond ( agent of McLachlan), Terry McBride ( manager of McLachlan) and his business partner Dan Frazier from the music management Nettwerk in Vancouver . Large arenas were chosen as venues, with a main stage as well as a side stage for newcomers . Sponsors should be able to advertise and offer their products. There were strict rules regarding sponsorship, and companies were not allowed to advertise that benefited from child labor or animal testing.

The name of the tour comes from a Jewish legend according to which Lilith Adam was the first wife and thus the first independent woman in human history. The name was not intended as a political statement, however, and McLachlan did not target the event solely at a female audience. Rather, she wanted the Lilith Fair to be an event for the whole family.

Lilith Fair 1997 to 1999

Lilith Fair in Mansfield (1998)

The first show of the Lilith Fair took place on July 5, 1997 in Seattle. There were a total of three stages: a main stage and two side stages ( Second Stage and Village Stage ). The tour was visited by around 500,000 visitors per year, with sales of around USD 13 million in 1997, around USD 21 million in 1998 and around USD 19 million in 1999. In 1998 the first shows took place in Europe, Australia and Japan, the first European concert was in London's Royal Albert Hall on September 23, 1998.

In April 1999 Sarah McLachlan and Terry McBride announced that 1999 would be the last edition of the Lilith Fair, along with the participating artists. It was planned from the beginning to only host the Lilith Fair for three years, and one should stop when it is most beautiful. The 1999 Lilith Fair began on July 8, 1999 in Vancouver. In the summer of 1999, McLachlan and the ASCAP announced that a competition for female songwriters would be held as part of the 1999 Lilith Fair. The top winner received $ 25,000 in prize money and the runner-up was $ 10,000. Although it was already clear that the Lilith Fair would take place for the last time in 1999, the plan was to continue the competition. The last Lilith Fair took place in 1999 at 34 locations with an average of 14,165 visitors and an average sales per show of 545,948 USD. Seven of the venues were sold out. In three years, a total of 139 shows were produced and more than two million tickets were sold. In the US alone, the Lilith Fair had sales of USD 52.9 million and a total of 1.6 million visitors at 104 shows.

Lilith Fair 2010

Ann McNamee at the Lilith Fair, Mansfield (2010)

At the end of 2009, McLachlan announced a new edition of the Lilith Fair for 2010. Everything should stay as it was from 1997 to 1999, in particular 1 US dollar per ticket should go to charitable purposes again. 35 shows were planned in North America and 6 to 8 in Europe. In the spring of 2011 the Lilith Fair should go to Asia for some concerts. The 2010 reissue began on June 27, 2010, and ticket prices ranged from USD 66 to USD 277. Of the 36 shows planned in North America, 13 were canceled due to a lack of acceptance.

Charitable purposes

In its first edition, from 1997 to 1999, the proceeds totaled approximately $ 10 million to charity. The beneficiaries of the donations were organizations such as Planned Parenthood , Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and LIFEbeat .

reception

The Lilith Fair acted as a bridge between the mainstream and the music of women artists. She is seen as an example of how women artists can win and assert their place in the music business. The event showed that women have arrived in the popular music scene. Co-organizer McBride stated that the Lilith Fair only worked because it could rely on artists who were already commercially successful. On the one hand, unlike previous events of a similar nature, the tour was strictly aimed at commercial success, which was evident in the sponsorship of companies such as Starbucks or Bioré . On the other hand, a not inconsiderable part of the money raised was used for charitable purposes. The Lilith Fair is seen as groundbreaking for women artists because in its three years it has proven that they too can reach a wide audience. Observers described the shows as extremely peaceful, the visitors felt like a large community and the festivals were considered extremely safe compared to other events.

The Lilith Fair was also a commercial success and, in addition to three samplers, also produced a book and a film.

Controversy

In the spring of 1999, Rock for Life , an organization against abortion, called for a boycott of the second and third editions of the touring sampler Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music . Although the sales proceeds are intended for charitable purposes, the recipient of the donation, Planned Parenthood, is an organization that "abuses women and children for purposes of birth control and abortion". McLachlan then made it clear that Planned Parenthood would have a booth at the 1999 Lilith Fair, but that the proceeds from the two samplers went to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and LIFEbeat .

The National Liberty Journal , edited by fundamentalist - Baptist pastor and television preacher Jerry Falwell, published an article in June 1999 calling the Lilith Fair “servants of a pagan cult” because it supported the lesbian movement and contraception. Lilith refused to obey Adam and was then banished from the Garden of Eden, which is why she is often portrayed as a demon. The visitors to the Lilith Fair are not even aware of the demonic legend behind the name of the concert they are attending. Based on these allegations, co-organizer Terry McBride expressed that the choice of a name was intended to "neither denigrate the Bible nor spoil children".

criticism

Criticism came from two different directions. The general criticism of the event was aimed at the fact that almost exclusively white artists from a small select group appeared at the concerts and so the musical spectrum was seen as rather colorless. Observers viewed the Lilith Fair as a step backwards because the selection of artists appeared uniform and adapted in view of the large number of young and innovative musicians. The Lilith Fair was described as a kind of “self-made musical ghetto”. Music journalists also criticized the lack of musical diversity. Everything is geared too much towards McLachlan's personal taste as a singer-songwriter and is almost exclusively rooted in folk , pop and country . The Toronto Sun missed a serious rock musician in the festival's line-up, and Newsweek lamented the lack of real R&B and soul artists. The artists mostly reflected McLachlan's image and offered more melody than message.

Further criticism was leveled at the subliminal political statements that the rock music scene in particular attached to the presentation of the Lilith Fair in the media and the selection of artists. McLachlan has been called a "pseudo-feminist". There was also no effect on other festivals dominated by male artists, because more women artists did not automatically appear there. Although there were events similar to the Ladyfest after the end of the Lilith Fair , these took place underground and followed the DIY principle. In the mainstream, however, the Lilith Fair left a void.

However, the visitors to the events were of little interest to the criticism; What mattered to them was not what the critics thought should have been, but what actually was.

Conclusion

The Lilith Fair was a commercial success for both the participating artists and the organizers. But both music critics and scholarly recipients ultimately classified the Lilith Fair as a failed experiment.

Publications

Sampler

  • 1998: Lilith Fair: A Celebration Of Women In Music, Vol. 1 ( Arista Records )
  • 1998: Lilith Fair: A Celebration Of Women In Music, Vol. 2 (Arista Records)
  • 1999: Lilith Fair: A Celebration Of Women In Music, Vol. 3 (Arista Records)

book

  • Buffy Childerhose: From Lilith to Lilith Fair . St Martin's Press, 1998.

literature

  • Mina Carson, Tisa Lewis, Susan M. Shaw: Girls Rock! Fifty Years of Women Making Music . University Press of Kentucky, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8131-2904-4 , pp. 60-64 .
  • Andi Zeisler : Feminism and Pop Culture . Seal Press, Berkeley 2008, ISBN 978-0-7867-2671-4 , pp. 110-113 .
  • Ronald D. Lankford Jr .: Women Singer-Songwriters in Pop. A Populist Rebellion in the 1990s . Scarecrow Press, Plymouth 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-7269-1 , pp. 114-118 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Terri Horak: McLachlan Plans All-Female Tour . In: Billboard . October 19, 1996, p. 1, 100 .
  2. ↑ a b c Mina Carson et al .: Girls Rock! P. 60.
  3. ↑ a b c d Mina Carson et al .: Girls Rock! P. 61.
  4. ↑ Kurt B. Reighley: Sarah McLachlan: In the Garden . In: CMJ New Music Monthly . August 1997, p. 21, 25 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Susanne Ault: Is The Right Time For A Next-Generation Female Fest? In: Billboard . March 1, 2003, p. 14 .
  6. ^ Paul Sexton: Lilith Fair London Gig Heralds Tours Outside North America . In: Billboard . October 10, 1998, p. 58 .
  7. ↑ a b Glen Sansone: Lilith Fair Lineup Announced . In: CMJ New Music Monthly . May 1999, p. 4 .
  8. ^ A b Robyn Lewis: ASCAP, Lilith Team For Writing Contest . In: Billboard . August 28, 1999, p. 14 .
  9. ^ A b Lars Brandle: Sarah McLachlan Taking Lilith Fair Down Under. Billboard.com, August 23, 2010, accessed March 1, 2013 .
  10. ^ A b Ray Waddell: Lilith Returns . In: Billboard . December 5, 2009, p. 11 .
  11. ↑ Fest Dates: Lilith Fair . In: Spin . June 2010, p. 66 .
  12. ↑ a b c d Andi Zeisler: Feminism and Pop Culture , p. 111.
  13. ^ Andi Zeisler: Feminism and Pop Culture , p. 110.
  14. ↑ a b c d e Ronald D. Lankford Jr .: Women Singer-Songwriters in Pop. P. 114.
  15. ↑ Mina Carson et al .: Girls Rock! P. 63.
  16. ↑ a b c Glen Sansone: Rock For Life Lobbies For Lilith Boycott; Lilith Spoof In Works . In: CMJ New Music Monthly . June 1999, p. 5 .
  17. ↑ a b Glen Sansone: Falwell Denounces Lilith Fair As Bad Influences . In: CMJ New Music Monthly . July 1999, p. 6 .
  18. ↑ a b c d Andi Zeisler: Feminism and Pop Culture , p. 112.
  19. ↑ Ronald D. Lankford Jr .: Women Singer-Songwriters in Pop. P. 116.
  20. ↑ Ronald D. Lankford Jr .: Women Singer-Songwriters in Pop. P. 118.