August 22, 2010

Publication title: dailytelegraph.com.au, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Jonathon Moran

A fair bit of Lilith for Oz

CANADIAN singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan is bringing an abbreviated version of her world-famous Lilith Fair Festival to Australia.

The festival, which the Grammy Award winner helped establish in 1997, features only female artists and female-led bands.

The cut-down version, A Taste Of Lilith, will feature Court Yard Hounds (Dixie Chicks’ Martie Maguire and Emily Robison), Kate Miller-Heidke, The Verses and, of course, McLachlan, in a mini-festival in October.

“It’s a celebration of female musicians and has such a long history,” Miller-Heidke said.

“It was very groundbreaking at the time – nearly 15 years ago, when female musicians were very much in the minority and found it hard to get played on the radio.

“Sarah McLachlan says that back in those days at a festival, you could never have more than one female act because promoters would think that they would be overlapping and no one would pay to see that … Lilith Fair pretty much proved all those people wrong and opened a lot of doors for women in the music industry.”

After a 10-year hiatus, the festival was resurrected in Europe, the US and Canada in July with a roster of big-name stars, including Gossip, Rihanna, The Bangles and Australia’s Miller-Heidke.

A Taste Of Lilith will be held at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on October 4. Tickets go on sale on September 2 through Ticketek (phone: 132 849).