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Editors Note: This article was originally written after the first Lilith Fair event in 1997. The second half of this article was added after the 1998 Lilith Fair.
This past week I had the joy of going to the first all women music festival - Lilith Fair. The name of "Lilith" comes from an old Hebrew folk tale about Adam's first wife, Lilith. Apparently, she wasn't as inferior to Adam as he wanted. She wanted to be her own person, not Adam's wife-slave. Because of this, she was banished from Eden and became a spirit associated with the seductful side of a woman. Eve came in her place to stand behind Adam, not beside him. Sarah McLachlan is the woman behind Lilith Fair. She has continually stated that the Fair isn't to exclude men, but to celebrate women. After spending a day with these women, I relize we have a lot to celebrate. A few years ago, a concert bill of all women would have been unthinakable. Promoters would see it as a financial suicide and there would have been no backing for it. Even the thought of a woman opening up for another woman in a "regular" concert was unheard of. Well, thankfully we've broken through that barrier. If you take a look at the Top 40 music charts in the US, you'll notice that most of the artists are women. Radio stations no longer have a policy of not playing women "back to back" in any of their sets. In fact, there is almost a reverse sexism going on now because it is hard for a man to break through on his own in the music business. However, for some reason, I doubt that will last as long as the sexism against women in music has lasted. One of the most surprising things about the Fair was the amount of men there to enjoy the music. I'm not talking about the men who were dragged along by their girlfriends, but the ones who went just because they wanted to. I almost expected to have to search to find a man there enjoying himself. I was very wrong. A little bit less than half of the people there were men. Men who were enjoying the music. It wasn't some huge "feminazi festival" like some people have called it. It was people enjoying music that women have done. Right now, I can't wait till next summer so that I can get to see the Lilith Fair again. It opened up my eyes to how far women have come and it boosted my spirits in believing that women can get what they want, no matter what men think they should have.
The copyright of the article The Lilith Fair: A Celebration Of Women In Music in Women's Issues is owned by . Permission to republish The Lilith Fair: A Celebration Of Women In Music in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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