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Lilith Fair to kick off June 19; Lollapalooza takes a break
April 17, 1998
McLachlan
Web posted at: 2:35 a.m. EDT (0635 GMT)LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Singer Sarah McLachlan on Thursday announced this year's lineup for Lilith Fair, an all-female traveling music festival, and organizers for the older Lollapalooza festival said their show would not go on.
At a press conference in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theatre, McLachlan was joined by Grammy winners Bonnie Raitt and Paula Cole to announce the festival's lineup this year, which will feature artists including Natalie Merchant, Sinead O'Connor, Sheryl Crow, Erykah Badu, the Indigo Girls and Shawn Colvin.
The second annual Lilith Fair will kick off June 19 in Portland, Oregon.
"It's all talent-driven. Lilith Fair by far was the most successful festival last year because it was a new story to tell and female artists were really hot. Many of them had won Grammys," said Andrew Klein, president of business affairs at Connecticut-based Entertainment Marketing Communications International.
Lilith Fair attracted about 15,000 people per show last year As one popular festival gets ready for its second year, another veteran one takes the year off.
Lollapalooza was pulled because the organizers -- the agency, Ted Gardner and Jane's Addiction band leader Perry Farrell -- could not line up a main headlining band.
"It will not be happening," said an assistant at the William Morris Agency. The talent agency is one of the three organizers of Lollapalooza, the success of which spawned other tours like Lilith Fair.
"We just feel that we wanted to make it the best it could be and we had difficulties due to the schedule of many of the bands. So we're taking the year off," the assistant said.
According to industry sources, Lollapalooza organizers had originally planned for Jane's Addiction, one of America's most -popular "cult" bands of the past decade, to headline this year's event. But that fell through, leaving organizers three to four months behind competitors to line up a major band.
Jane's Addiction, which broke up in the early 1990s, reunited briefly a few months ago, but guitarist Dave Navarro is now focusing on a new project and has said he will not tour extensively again with the band.
"I think it's probably a good thing (Lollapalooza) is taking a break. It was getting stale and turned into a giant flea market for beads and T-shirts," said Mike Abbattista, vice president of promotions and artist development for Velvel Records, an independent record label.
Lollapalooza drew about 11,000 people per show on average last year and had trouble attracting customers last summer amid increased competition from the popular Lilith Fair shows, which attracted about 15,000 people per show in its first year.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Folk musicians take home top Grammys - February 26, 1998
- Grammys look a little like the Lilith Fair - February 20, 1998
- Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan do cameos on 'Ellen' - January 7, 1998
- Lilith Fair proves these women can rock - July 31, 1997
- McLachlan spearheads breakthrough Lilith Fair tour - June 29, 1997
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