A new documentary has been announced about Lilith Fair, the all-female music festival founded by the Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan in 1997. The film is reportedly based on the oral history that ran in Vanity Fair in 2019 (which you should definitely read). When the news broke early this month, it was huge news for both fans of female singer-songwriters everywhere and older millennials, like me, who came of age during this incredible time.
I never got to attend a Lilith Fair—I grew up in Puerto Rico, and the tour was strictly North America based—but for the three years it ran, it was like a distant dream. I had fallen in love with Sarah McLachlan’s record Surfacing on the strength of its first two singles, “Building a Mystery” and “Sweet Surrender,” which were on heavy rotation on VH1 at the time. So were Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?,” Shawn Colvin’s “Sunny Came Home,” and all the hits from Sheryl Crow’s self-titled sophomore album and, of course, Fiona Apple’s debut, Tidal. It was a great time for women musicians and their fans, even if, at the time, they were still derided and all the main festivals of the era were increasingly macho in the worst possible way.
As the story goes, McLachlan was pissed that radio execs and concert promoters balked at the idea of playing two female artists back-to-back. So out of spite, she planned a whole music festival. She named it after Lilith, who was Adam’s wife before Eve and, according to Jewish folklore, was banished from paradise for refusing to be subservient to him.
In its first year, the festival grossed $16 million, making it the top-grossing festival of 1997—no small feat considering that Lollapalooza and the Warped Tour were still at their peak in those years. McLachlan also donated a percentage of the proceeds to charity. The 1997 lineup had McLachlan and Suzanne Vega playing every tour date and a rotating cast of powerhouses that included all the artists mentioned above, plus Tracy Chapman, the Indigo Girls, Jewel, Joan Osborne, Lisa Loeb, Juliana Hatfield, Susanna Hoffs, Dido, Pat Benatar, Jill Sobule, Beth Orton, Morcheeba, and K’s Choice. (A total of 69 artists that first year grew to more than 120 by the festival’s last year in 1999.)
As a teenager at the time, this music and moment were incredibly formative, so I thought I’d now take a walk down memory lane (a.k.a. Getty Images) and see what was captured during the three years that the festival took place, from 1997 to 1999. Not surprisingly, the vibes are impeccable, and my playlists have gotten a real good update lately. I can’t wait for the documentary to come out and perhaps inspire a new version of Lilith Fair for our modern era. In my dreams the lineup would include Charli XCX, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, Solange, Lorde, St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, and Billie Eilish—yes, along with Sarah, Fiona, Erykah Badu, and of course Sheryl. Why not?! Dreaming is free.
