Spotlight: Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery Documentary

Lilith Fair Performers

The documentary special Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery debuted on Hulu on Sunday, and I was SO VERY excited to watch it because I have been a BIG fan of Sarah McLachlan since the mid-1990’s.

As I mentioned in my April 23, 2024 column, which can be found here, Sarah McLachlan’s 1994 album “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” was crucial to me at that point in time because of the very unexpected loss of my Dad.

So, watching this documentary meant a great deal to me mainly due to the fact I was unable to attend Lilith Fair. The closest location that festival ever came to in relation to where I lived at the time would have meant an overnight stay in a city that was a two-hour drive from my small hometown at a time when I was the 24/7 caregiver for my mother, who had a lot of health issues.

I would have loved to see all the amazing female artists who performed in any of those festivals, but it just wasn’t feasible so watching this documentary allowed me a fantastic glimpse into the powerful impact that Lilith Fair had at the time.

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Now, let me share a little backstory on Lilith Fair and how it came to be:

In 1996, Sarah McLachlan was frustrated with concert promoters as well as radio stations for refusing to feature two female musicians in a row or on the same stage performing on the exact same bill.

So she decided to buck conventional industry “wisdom,” teaming up with Paula Cole – whose song “I Don’t Want to Wait” would eventually become the theme song for the uber-popular TV series Dawson’s Creek – to book a successful tour featuring them. One of their appearances went by the name “Lilith Fair” and included performances by other female artists like Lisa Loeb and Michelle McAdorey (formerly of Crash Vegas).

In 1997, McLachlan along with New York talent agent Marty Diamond and Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, both of Nettwerk Music Group, the Canadian independent record label who signed McLachlan to their label when she was an up-and-coming 19-year-old singer-songwriter, officially founded the Lilith Fair, taking the name Lilith from the Jewish lore that Lilith was Adam’s first wife who refused to be subservient to him.

Sarah McLachlan Now and Then

Over the course of three summers – from 1997 to 1999 – the list of talented, female performers grew and changed with the likes of Tracy Chapman, Emmylou Harris, Jewel, Erykah Badu, Sheryl Crow, Liz Phair, Indigo Girls, Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah and countless others taking to the stage to perform alongside Sarah McLachlan.

In fact, over those three summers, Lilith Fair played 134 dates across 54 cities, raising more than $10 million dollars for local women’s shelters and non-profits. This information is provided at the very end of the documentary so I’m not making up any of those numbers.

It should also be noted that some of the newcomers to the music industry who took part in those concerts included Mya, Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado, Dido and India Aire just to name a few as well as veteran performers like Pat Benatar, Bonnie Raitt, Chrissie Hynde (and The Pretenders) and Suzanne Vega.

So tell me, did you get a chance to attend Lilith Fair back in the day? If you did, please share your story in our comments section below

To get a much fuller look at Lilith Fair, make sure to check out the documentary on Hulu.

You can watch the official trailer for Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery below: