Lilith Fair is Tomorrow at the Gorge

MvB (right) and friend, long ago, surveying the future, with all its iPhone apps.

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear! 1997, when Lilith Fair emerged, full-grown, from the minds of Sarah McLachlan and some other people. "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly and "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls were playing in the Top 10 that year. Lilith Fair grossed $16 million ($US not $CAN), and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that college girls, their pony-tailed boyfriends, and lesbians could get along.

I am proud to say I was there in spirit, though in fact I went to some equally portentous event with a more Peter-Gabriel-y vibe that featured Toad the Wet Sprocket and a Ugandan singer, among others. Am I making that up? I can't remember. I do remember that that summer a girl I was trying to make time with gave me an Ani DiFranco mixtape, which I totally did not clue into.

All that to say that Lilith Fair has returned to Seattle-ish! A lineup of McLachlan, Marié Digby, Ann Atomic, The Submarines, Erykah Badu, Colbie Caillat, Xolie Morra & the Strange Kind, A Fine Frenzy, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Sheryl Crow, and Sugarland are making music all day long on Saturday, July 3, and tickets are still available. Lots of tickets. Only the front-and-center section is sold out. Maybe those $77.50 cheap seats don't sound so cheap. Still. Memories like this don't come along every day.