If you told us today that there was going to be an all-female music festival complete with Planned Parenthood booths, protests, and non-stop coverage, we would be there in a heartbeat because what a great time to be surrounded by like-minded people and good tunes. But what if we told you this actually happened over 20 years ago? Yeeeah, it’s no secret women have been fighting for their rights for centuries at this point, but Lilith Fair, as it came to be known, was a festival ahead of its time. We say that because it sounds like a march that would actually happen today. (And be a smashing good time, we might add!) Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Fiona Apple are just a few of the artists that headlined Lilith Fair and their legacy still lives on within an entire generation. Here are a few things you might not know about this historical, groundbreaking festival.
(image via: rolling stone)
First things first, how did Lilith Fair even become a thing? Sarah McLachlan got like, really sick and tired of radio stations refusing to play two female artists back to back; not just that but male musicians typically got the better venues, more ideal tour dates, you name it. So Lilith Fair was born.
Now the name Lilith has a pretty sweet background. Lilith was a character written about in the Bible, and she was in fact Adam’s first wife. Now, the really cool thing about Lilith is that she refused to follow Adam’s orders to exit Eden, so you see how this all went together so well.
Chrissie Hynde and Sheryl Crow would disguise themselves so they could go out into the crowd and enjoy the performers. So, in theory, anyone could say they sat next to them at Lilith Fair and since nobody can prove anything, it wouldn’t really be a lie so much as a colorful story.
(image via: amazon)
Queen Christina Aguilera attended the fair! The year was 1999 so Aguilera was just breaking out at this point, which meant no headlining, but she did play a little village stage. Not only do we think this was THE coolest time to see Aguilera perform, but we have no doubt her performance was killer.
We love women supporting women, so we were excited to find out that the artists were all huge fans of each others; however, there was one artist that was extra-loved by the performers. Any guesses? If you guessed Sinead O’Connor then you would be correct.
As we well know (we’re way past just imagining this scenario) a women-centered festival was met with a lot of uhm, opinions and questions such as: but what about the men? And why do you hate men? Finally, Queen and founder Sarah McLachlan said in an interview that she was done talking about what the fair isn’t.