Ottawa finally gets a chance to see if Lilith Fair lives up to advance hype when the all-woman travelling music festival hits Lansdowne Park on Aug. 14.
Festival founder Sarah McLachlan -- who promised she'd return to Ottawa with Lilith during her show at the Civic Centre last October -- will headline the main stage on the festival's Ottawa stop, it was officially announced yesterday. Also on the main-stage bill are last year's Lilith alumni Paula Cole and Emmylou Harris, along with Vancouver jazz singer Diana Krall and Neneh Cherry.
Moody Toronto popsters Wild Strawberries and Abra Moore make up the second-stage lineup, while fiddler Melanie Doane and Ottawa's very own Tammy Raybould will showcase on the "village stage."
Dead Can Dance vocalist Lisa Gerrard was originally set to join the Lilith crew in Ottawa, but she recently cancelled all of her North American summer tour dates.
Tickets for the Ottawa Lilith Fair date -- which has been scheduled but searching for a promoter for the past couple of months -- go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m. at all Admission ticket outlets and the Ottawa Civic Centre box office, or by phone at 237-3800 or 1-800-361-4595. Cost is $42.50, plus a $1 surcharge targeted to local woman-focussed charity organizations.
McLachlan's festival -- initially considered a risky commercial venture because of its female-centric lineup -- was the highest-grossing package tour of 1997. This year's expanded edition kicks off in Portland, Ore., on June 19 and will visit 57 North American cities before wrapping up at Vancouver's Thunderbird Stadium on Aug. 31.
Further details can be found at the official Lilith web site: http://lilithfair.excite.com.