{babes} Show goes on -- despite some bad news

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LILITH FAIR

Featuring Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Sugarland and others

When: Thursday

Where: Ambleside Park

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The skies threatened to open up over the 2010 revival of Lilith Fair in West Vancouver's Ambleside Park, but the only rain that dampened the parade was news from Nettwerk Music Group that 10 more Lilith Fair dates will be cancelled.

This announcement came less than a week after two dates were officially cancelled by Lilith organizers: the Phoenix show scheduled for early July and a Nashville show in August.

During a press conference held midway through the third stop of the all-female festival, Lilith co-founder Terry McBride opted to look at the positive side of the situation.

"There are so many awesome things happening with Lilith. What about the good things? What about the talent search? The charities? Focus on that silver lining, that's what I think about it," he said.

"It sucks. It sucks," said local Canadian songstress Sarah McLachlan, who co-founded the festival in 1997. "But you know what, we're here today. My feeling is I always try to look at the silver lining in the cloud. And whoever is going to come to the shows is going to get a great performance. That's what I focus on."

"It's been a hard summer," added country superstar Sheryl Crow, who was in attendance for the press conference alongside other stars like Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles and Erykah Badu. "We're seeing more tours being cancelled. But we're still here," she said.

Nettwerk said in a press release it has removed the following dates from what was supposed to be an 18-city tour: Salt Lake City (July 12), Montreal (July 23), Raleigh (Aug. 4), Charlotte (Aug. 6), West Palm Beach (Aug. 10), Tampa (Aug. 11), Birmingham (Aug. 12), Austin (Aug. 14), Houston (Aug. 15) and Dallas (Aug. 16).

An estimated 9,600 tickets were sold for Thursday's West Vancouver event, McLachlan said. The venue has a capacity of 9,500 to 11,000. The concert was originally scheduled for Pitt Meadows airport, with a capacity of 25,000.

The June 28 show in Edmonton saw only 6,500 spectators at Rexall Place, which seats 15,000.

Crow says the Internet, the shifting music industry and hard economic times are to blame.

"The only way we make money now, because no one buys records any more, is to tour. There's just not enough money to go around. The unemployment rate is really taxing people. They're not allowing themselves to go out and spend dollars they don't have. It's a bummer for everybody," Crow said. "History's being written. Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow--and by tomorrow, I mean tomorrow."

When asked whether Lilith will continue to tour next year -- or even in future years -- despite cancellations and

low ticket sales, McLachlin leaned into her microphone and responded with a

blunt "Yep."

"You can spell that y-e-p. Yep," Crow added.

Earlier in the day, music lovers -- ranging from newborn babies to the elderly, male and female -- didn't seem to mind the murky skies or unfortunate news.

The Vancouver stop, which is the third of the tour, saw hundreds of people lined up with their blankets and bare feet around 2 p.m., waiting to enter the park and catch local Lilith Local Talent winner Steph Macpherson.

The Vancouver singer-songwriter started her set about 2:30 p.m., playing tracks off her 2009 disc To You. Happy onlookers watched and tapped their feet. Some spectators cuddled up in blankets to make themselves at home, while others embraced the decent weather with T-shirts and tank tops.

By early evening, the festival picked up in energy, with more and more fans muddling about and embracing the outdoor venue.

Some hung around the foodstands, which served everything from healthy wraps to fulfilling mini-doughnuts, depending on your hankering -- while others bustled towards shows by bubbly Colbie Caillat and the soul mama Erykah Badu, eager to catch a glimpse of them and the coming main stage acts Sheryl Crow, Sugarland and Sarah McLachlan.