Lilith Fair Returns

Lilith Fair, the unique traveling music festival featuring female artists, is set to return after a 10 year absence.

Founded by Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Management’s Dan Fraser and Terry McBride and booking agent Marty Diamond of the Paradigm booking agency, Lilith was a shining star in a summer overflowing with traveling festivals. Its nearly all-female lineup offered a different day of music when compared with other festival tours like Perry Farrell’s Lollapalooza and Blues Traveler’s H.O.R.D.E.

The first Lilith Festival tour was in 1997 and it toured for three consecutive summers before ending in 1999. Lilith was one of the highest-grossing touring festivals in the world, sold more than 1.5 million tickets and raised more than $10 million for national and local charities.

Past Lilith artists, in addition to McLachlan, include Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow, Christina Aguilera, Erykah Badu, The Pretenders, Jewel, Queen Latifah and Indigo Girls.

Now it’s back. Although it’s way too early to talk lineups and dates, Nettwerk has announced an initial list of North American cities – Atlanta, Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C.

The first round of cities also includes London, leading to speculation the U.K. and maybe Europe will get a healthy dose of Lilith as well.

The festival also has a new website launching today. Of course, Internet choices have changed somewhat during the past 10 years. These days Lilith is on every major social networking site and is Twitter friendly.

“I can’t reveal anything further now,” McBride said. “But I can assure fans that we have some exciting announcements over the course of the following weeks, from confirmed artists to additional cities to innovative social initiatives. Lilith 2010 is very much upon us.”