Original subtitles

[sound engineer] Check, one, two. Check.

Does anyone else get a little bit sad that they never got to go to Lilith Fair?

Featuring only women artists, so it was really, really cool.

It was an all-female music festival from 1997 to 1999, and I am shook to my core.

[Olivia Rodrigo] I remember someone bringing it up a few years ago.

And doing research on it and finding out

that all of my favorite artists had... had played, um, at this event.

Somebody like Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crow, Pat Benatar, Fiona Apple,

Jewel, and all these people that I had spent my whole life just adoring.

[crowd cheers]

I was in disbelief that I'd never heard of it before.

And also just thinking that the name sounded really cool.

"Lilith Fair." Wow, that's really interesting.

It's quite curious because almost everybody I know

didn't know who Lilith was,

and she's such a strong and wonderful feminist figure.

In religious mythology,

-Lilith was Adam's first wife, before Eve. -[crowd cheering]

She was created out of the same stuff he was,

yet he refused to treat her as an equal, so she said, "I'm out of here."

Lilith left the Garden of Eden and built her own garden,

dancing and singing among women who, like her,

refused to surrender their strength.

[interviewer] Singer Sarah McLachlan has launched an all-female tour.

[attendee] Whoo! Whoo!

[McLachlan] One of the beautiful things about Lilith was we could be ourselves.

There was such power in that.

[cheering]

Wow.

Welcome to Lilith Fair!

I just love hearing music that comes from the heart.

It shows that the women have power in the music industry.

[Cole] I feel like this is the first time we've had a forum

of contemporary women artists, and people just, they were ready.

This is a celebration of women in music and the fact that we have a voice.

[interviewer] So, that question of the possibility that

it further marginalizes "women's music," quote, unquote.

[Cole] I think the point is good music that happens to be women.

Of course, there are undertones of feminism.

-[chuckles] -[interviewer] Right. You got that right.

And that can't hurt, 'cause the world needs some of that, I think.

[McLachlan] It was a massive success.

And it changed people's lives. It changed my life.

And yet, people don't like change.

There's a reason that Lilith still remains mostly unheard of or misunderstood.

Because if you stand up for something,

there is gonna be an equal and opposite reaction.

-[crowd cheering] -[applause]

One of the things I thought was so unique about the Lilith Tour was

everybody was always around everybody.

-Hello. -Two, three.

♪ Another day goes by And still the children cry ♪

♪ Put a little love ♪

Are we gonna go to the… Mmm... Uh.

♪ Put a little love in your heart ♪

I mean, the Lilith Tour was full of rock stars,

but that feminine energy, I think, usurped the ego.

There was no separation between artists.

Nobody was more important than anybody else.

With women, there's more of a communal thing, and it was so important in a moment

where there wasn't a lot of support for women, particularly in the music industry.

[door bell chimes]

-Hi, Sarah. How ya doing? -Pretty good. How are you?

[McLachlan] I remember, every time I'd go to a radio station, they'd play a song.

They're like, "Yeah, yeah, it's a really great song,

but, you know, we added Tracy Chapman this week"

or "We added Jewel this week," and I was like, "And?"

"What's that got to do with me?"

Those are all very different artists than me,

but we all kind of got lumped into the same category.

There's room for one of us?

They said women were not supposed to be played back-to-back on the radio.

"Oh, it's too much. People will change the channel."

It just never made any sense to me.

In the early '90s, all the radio programmers were men.

All the promoters were men.

It was inane that we weren't able to do what it was we knew we could do.

[♪ "All I Wanna Do" plays]

[♪ "Sleep to Dream" plays]

[♪ "You Oughta know" plays]

There was a great rush of female singer-songwriters.

You had rock and roll women, you had hip-hop women,

you had folky women, you had folk-rock women making all kinds of music.

They keep talking about female singers, and suddenly,

you're all lumped together when you don't sound alike.

Exactly. Well, because it's supposedly a "fad" or whatever.

There's still this media perception of it being cute or novel or a fluke.

Women aren't flukes. [chuckles]

[cheering]

[Phair] When you're in a male-dominated industry,

you don't run into other female artists,

and worse, you're being pitted against each other.

So we all knew, although we'd never talk about it.

I don't wanna talk about it.

Shut up.

This area right here, you can see how Jewel dominated her competition.

[Phair] And I think we felt, in one sense,

the competitors in us would be like, "All right."

And then, in another sense, this great sadness. Like, "Why, why?"

That was a very '90s ethos, because it wasn't an easy time either.

Are you a scorned woman?

[Jewel] The larger culture was straight-up toxic.

Then you're the president, and you're humping the fat chick.

[audience laughs]

Be a little more sexy. With a body like that.

-Yeah, yeah! Whoa. -Whoa.

-[squeals] -[audience laughs]

What are you doing?

[audience cheers]

The predominant movement at the time was shock jocks.

-[radio host] Goes off… -[radio host 2] Shock radio.

Getting the boner.

I like the big, fat bitch.

[Jewel] I'm 19, and they would go,

"Jewel, how do you give a blow job with those teeth?"

Or, "You may have heard me describe my next guest

as a large-breasted woman from Alaska.

Jewel, how are you?"

And I was like, "You must be that small penis man

I've heard so much about from South Carolina."

And I was escorted out.

Howard Stern Interview Show with Suzanne Vega.

Come here. Come here.

Suzanne, what's the big deal? Suzanne is a…

Guys are not responding to you in the proper way.

They're not seeing you as a little bit of a, uh, sex image.

Yeah, well, we've discussed this already, about the makeover thing.

I like to cover myself. That's why I dress the way I dress.

I wanted people to see my face and my hands,

and to think about my lyrics.

But the pressure was on to be sort of larger than life,

-to be more like Madonna. -[camera shutter clicks]

In the '80s, she used sex to sell records.

That was her empowerment message,

which was great for her,

but it was not something that I was going to do.

[Phair] I was sent to a magazine shoot, and they asked me to wear

trousers and suspenders that just went over my nipples,

so I had no shirt on.

Everyone says, "You have this big record."

"You're in the top whatever list."

And I'm like, "I'm devalued."

Everything that I was good at, that I was skilled at,

that I had worked my entire life for,

boiled down to, "Do her tits look good?"

She looks great in the interview. She needs a more flattering picture,

don't you think?

Well, she's got her mouth wide open on this shot.

But she's a great singer. Mark my words.

You're gonna hear from Liz Phair for a long time.

So, yeah. I was ready to quit that first year.

[Newman] Her debut album in 1988

established her as a new force in Canadian music.

Sarah McLachlan joins us now from her hometown of Halifax.

-Hi, Sarah. How are you? -Hi.

What was it like growing up in Halifax for you, then?

Uh, how long do we have?

[both chuckle]

[McLachlan] For me, as a good Canadian girl,

I had to sort of find my way through to who I was.

You see, I was raised not to have an opinion,

not to open my mouth and say anything.

My mom was incredibly strict.

I wasn't really allowed to go out and do anything.

I didn't really have any friends.

Like, I could not be myself at home.

♪ I knew you wanted to tell me… ♪

I was grounded most of my adolescence for the tiniest of infractions.

But, really, it was just 'cause my mom wanted to keep me home to "protect" me.

I remember begging to be in a band.

And she was like, "Don't go thinking you're anything special.

Don't go thinking that you can really advance

or get anywhere because that doesn't happen.

You're gonna fail."

Well, that sucks. I don't believe that.

So, you know, my mom was really the first one

to help push me towards having my own belief system in myself

by doing the opposite, by telling me I wasn't good enough.

I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna be good enough."

I need people around me who support me and have my back

and actually like me for who I am.

For me, that was Terry McBride, my manager,

Dan Fraser, my road manager,

and Marty Diamond, my agent.

There was a mutual respect there,

and that was really, really important to me.

Everyone around Sarah and her crew and her band,

they were very open, and you could see the magic.

♪ I would be the one to hold you down ♪

♪ Kiss you so hard I'll take your breath away ♪

♪ And after I'd wipe away the tears ♪

♪ Just close your eyes ♪

[McLachlan] There was so much happening, so fast.

[reporter] Sarah McLachlan is one of the busiest women in the music industry.

[reporter 2] A force that just keeps on growing.

[reporter 3] She's on the verge of pop superstardom.

[whispering] They're interviewing Sarah right now.

[Fraser] Working with Sarah,

Terry was the brains of the operation.

And I was… [chuckles] I was on the touring side.

We were all a big family,

and we all kind of found solace in ourselves

and in what we were trying to achieve every day.

[McLachlan] My band and crew, we'd go out on the road.

Mostly men, yes.

-I got it. -Oh, yeah.

[McLachlan] But I wasn't even thinking about it.

[laughs]

They were all great people.

And off we went.

I thought that was normal.

But I didn't know the position I was in.

Coming from Canada, I was sheltered to a certain degree,

until I got signed to an American deal.

I remember going down to LA for a week.

The A&R guy was like, "Well, you know, if you lost five pounds,

you know, we could do this with you."

They were looking at my hair, going, "If we could do this and fix it."

And I came down there feeling, A, just fine about my body,

never gave it a second thought.

Actually, maybe we should move back. Watch it right there.

Just because they come and go and then they won't smash into me.

-Okay. -We don't want that.

They won't be inclined to pinch my ass or something to make me scream.

And after a week there, I was starting to not feel good about myself.

Do you like my Medusa?

She's a nice reminder to me.

And I was so young and green and naive.

If this is what a major label looks like, and that's what they expect from me,

I'm like, "This is...

No, I can't do it."

Then I realized that I was missing that sense of connection and community.

Two, three, check. Hello, hello.

I feel lonely.

This is a weird job, and it would be so nice to connect

with other women who are doing a similar thing to me.

But that's when promoters started saying, "You can't do this."

♪ None of your business ♪

Saying, "You can't put two women on the same bill. People won't come."

Which was complete bullshit.

[Donlon] At the time, believe it or not,

promoters wouldn't put two women back-to-back on the same bill

because the tickets wouldn't sell, which was absolutely ridiculous.

[Schellenbach] If you did, it was called a "pussy package."

"Come on down. It's girl's night."

And like, "Th-This many bands and free drinks for the ladies."

And it was, like, a weird stigma around that.

And certainly, that put a huge fire under my butt to prove them wrong.

[♪ "Saturn Girl" plays]

And the first person I reached out to was Paula Cole.

♪ …my dreams to break through ♪

♪ They don't believe in my words ♪

♪ They don't believe in my world ♪

♪ "Oh, you're lost in another world ♪

♪ Oh, you're lost, you Saturn girl ♪

♪ Oh, you crazy girl ♪

♪ Oh, you Saturn girl" ♪

[Cole] Sarah showed up at a gig of mine,

and she asked me to come on tour with her. That was the beginning.

-Okay. -[crew member] Okay what, Dan?

We're ready to rock.

[♪ "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" plays]

[Cole] I knew how rare it was for a woman to open for another woman on the road.

So would I open the show, and I would speak to the audience,

and I would say, "Listen."

I just wanna say that I'm very grateful.

I'm always grateful when I see women supporting other women in this business.

-[cheering] -It's such a rare and wonderful thing.

And you could feel the ripple of the zeitgeist,

this realization throughout the audience.

They knew it was true. They knew it was fucked-up. [chuckles]

And it kept doing well and well and well.

♪ Where have all the cowboys gone? ♪

And selling out and selling out.

♪ Yippy-yi, yippy-yay, yippy-yi… ♪

And I think we all realized that there was something there.

♪ Yippy-yi, yippy-yay, yippy-yi… ♪

Do you sit here and you videotape everything?

It's relentless.

So, that then expanded.

[McLachlan] What I remember feeling is, "Oh, my God. This is so much fun."

She re-engaged and was so excited.

And it was that, that everyone went, "We should do some more of these."

Why don't we get a couple of other artists and do a couple of other shows?

And she went, "They have to be all female."

I went, "Huh. Okay."

[cheering]

[McLachlan] Look at all these summer festivals.

They're all completely male-dominated,

yet there's all these amazing women out there making music.

Why don't we ask some of them if they wanna come do something?

And it was as simple as that.

It wasn't easy. [chuckles]

It was long, long days.

And Marty, Terry and myself negotiated every deal.

[Diamond] I lived 3,000 miles away from the core group,

so I was on the phone.

-Marty. -What days are they?

There always was a sense of resistance from promoters.

I was doing all the talent outreach. And getting a lot of no's.

You know, for me, it was, like, a no was a reason to come back harder.

[Vega] At first, I didn't get it.

I thought, "Why is she making this all-female show?"

[camera shutter clicking]

And then she explained to me that this was deliberate.

She was doing it deliberately to show the promoters

that you could have an all-female lineup and that it would do well.

And I thought, "Oh, yeah. Okay, great. Sign me up. I'll do it."

-[♪ "Tom's Diner" plays] -[audience clapping to beat]

♪ I open up the paper There's a story of an actor ♪

♪ Who had died while he was drinking It was no one I had heard of ♪

♪ And I'm turning to the horoscope And looking for the funnies ♪

♪ When I'm feeling someone watching me And so I raise my head ♪

[cheering]

[♪ "Stay (I Missed You)" plays]

♪ You say I only hear what I want to ♪

♪ You say I talk so all the time ♪

♪ So? ♪

At first, my immediate reaction was, "I don't know if that's a good idea.

I don't really wanna be grouped with a bunch of women musicians."

I'm a musician.

I went through my whole life at this all-girls school

where I really didn't wanna be seen as just a girl who plays guitar.

But then I heard about who was on the bill.

It was Sarah, Paula Cole, Aimee Mann, Patti Smith.

So I said, "Yes, for sure, I would love to do it."

[audience cheering]

♪ You said that I was naive and I thought that I was strong, oh ♪

♪ I thought "Hey, I can leave, I can leave" ♪

♪ Oh, but now I know that I was wrong ♪

♪ 'Cause I missed you ♪

♪ Yeah, I missed you… ♪

There was something different about being able to hang out with

and talk to other women who were leading their bands.

Being backstage with people that I was such a big admirer of…

You know, being a musician, you're very alone.

And to be able to have conversations with other people

about their experiences,

"You feel that way? Oh, my gosh. I feel that way too.

I thought I was the only one."

[audience cheers]

You know, that was an unusual place where you could feel at ease.

♪ …I only hear what I want to ♪

[audience cheers]

[Loeb] Thank you.

[McLachlan] We did four shows in 1996 as sort of test runs.

And I just wanted to be able to replicate that over and over again.

-It's over. -[crew member] Yes.

It was a success and I'm very happy.

[Fraser] At the end of the day,

we just kind of sat on the floor in the room,

and we said, "Let's do this." Like, "Let's build a festival."

Not four shows. Let's do 35 shows.

I think the label was very, like, "Oh, you can't do this."

Like, "That's crazy," right?

And, well, we basically said, you know, "Stuff it. We're gonna do it."

That turned into '97.

Originally, I don't think any of us were thinking as wide as it went.

[McBride] Before we launched, I said,

"You've got to come up with a name for this.

Because I need to brand it."

[McLachlan] I was talking to a writer friend of mine, Buffy Childerhose,

And I said, "What do you think would be a good name?"

[Childerhose] She wanted something that well represented

women and female power.

She'd mentioned Eve.

And I said to her, "Have you heard about Adam's first wife?

You should call it Lilith."

-[painter] Do you want me to draw it? -No.

I just thought it was cheeky and reactionary.

But it was a beautiful name, and I put "Fair" on the end of it

because I like the play on words, fair being beautiful,

fair being equal, and fair being a celebration or a festival.

[McBride] There was a lot of challenges

because the business just wasn't set up for it.

First with the promoters,

which Marty mostly had to deal with.

There was a little bit of a convince that this wasn't just a regional success.

And so, I just sort of thought,

"Okay, who's out there that I'm listening to that I really love?"

[♪ "Everyday Is A Winding Road" plays]

And we had a wish list.

Sheryl was one of those artists that worked her ass off

to get to where she was.

Her record was huge.

Sarah McLachlan called me, and I was absolutely like,

"Oh, my goodness. I mean, mana from heaven."

[Diamond] Sheryl Crow joined the tour.

♪ Everyday is a winding road ♪

♪ I get a little bit closer ♪

♪ Everyday is a faded sign ♪

♪ I get a little bit closer To feeling fine… ♪

[McLachlan] She got it. She knew what we were trying to do.

She was part of it, she was deeply invested in it.

It was kind of like sisters in arms,

and I was so grateful to have her there.

We always viewed it that we needed a co-headliner.

Like, it was always like, "Okay, one plus one equals three."

Who's the one plus one equals three?

[♪ "Fast Car" plays]

Tracy was a musical anomaly…

In the best way possible.

She was an artist that was a ground breaker.

She was hard to get, and an important get.

And you have to understand that I came from in that place,

like, maybe selling out to 2,500 or 3,000 people.

Sheryl, same thing.

Tracy Chapman, she was bigger.

So independently, we had fan bases.

Together, I thought, "How could this fail?"

We took very low guarantees.

In some cases, we took no guarantees. So we took all the risk.

And we didn't have a lot of sponsorships

'cause people just didn't see it doing anything.

[truck beeping]

I remember specifically one conversation with the water company,

and they were like, "No, we're kind of really focusing

on a male audience."

And I was like, "It's water."

We're here with Sarah McLachlan, who is defacing the water bottles.

-Hey, they're not sponsoring us. -There you go.

So much of the organization's been taken care of

and now most of the huge things sort of fall on the shoulders

of my tour manager, Dan Fraser.

'Cause he's running this thing, which is 67 people and seven semis

and six tour buses and, you know, it's all on his shoulders now.

You know, I just get up there and sing every night.

Okay, we'll see you down at The Gorge. Here we go.

[Diamond] I don't know if you've ever been to The Gorge,

but it's really fucking steep, you know.

And The Gorge is not in Seattle.

[McLachlan] I remember the first show at The Gorge.

Promoters were saying, "People won't come. People won't buy those tickets."

[McBride] And when 15,000 people showed up…

[cheering]

…we went, "Bingo, now we have something."

[♪ "Down On Me" plays]

[radio host 1] The Lilith Fair bill is incredible.

[radio host 2] Joining McLachlan on the bill

will be Jewel, Paula Cole, Tracy Chapman,

Suzanne Vega, jazz singer Cassandra Wilson,

and Fiona Apple, Joan Osborne and The Cardigans.

[Diamond] Maybe the better question is, who isn't?

[Carlile] I would go to The Gorge in Washington State,

which is where I'm from,

and then try to get tickets to shows I didn't have tickets to.

And I knew that there was this concert that was gonna be all-women

and that Sarah McLachlan was involved in it.

So I kind of knew that I was going up there for, like, a special one.

But nothing really could have prepared me for that experience,

a sort of coming-of-age and total freedom.

I was the only person out of the closet in my high school.

I was just this punky little baby dyke running around.

And it had the feeling of the beginning of something

because there was so much happening for LGBTQ people.

1997 was the same year that Ellen DeGeneres came out,

courting so much controversy but also so much hopefulness.

And from the audience perspective,

Lilith Fair felt like a real-life backyard manifestation of that, to me.

[♪ "I Don't Want to Wait" plays]

I just wanna say that I'm really glad Lilith has started.

I'm here because Sarah is very talented.

She's here for the chicks, we're here for the music.

I'm here for the chick… It's a chick fest.

[Mulligan] This is Much West at Lilith Fair '97, the kickoff date at The Gorge.

I-I was wondering what the common voice might achieve here.

I think Lilith Fair is a symbol of hope.

Not only is there a tremendous amount of support,

but I think this is just a metaphor for what could be in other areas of life.

[Cole] It was like a perfect day, clear blue sky,

the majesty of The Gorge sold out,

and us coming together.

And we realized, like, this is something that's much bigger than us

or what we even thought it could be.

There was magic in the air.

And that was the first day of Lilith Fair.

[concertgoer] We saw some new people who we hadn't seen before.

-[reporter] Like who? -Like I've never seen Paula Cole.

-[reporter] And? -And she was great. She was excellent.

♪ I don't wanna wait For our lives to be over ♪

♪ I want to know right now What will it be? ♪

♪ I don't wanna wait For our lives to be over ♪

♪ Will it be yes or will it be… sorry? ♪

♪ Doo doo doo doo Doo doo doo doo ♪

Could you in your wildest of dreams have envisioned that hill full of people?

[McLachlan] Um. [chuckles] There is a lot of people. It's so exciting.

The whole day, I mean, I keep thinking I gotta slow down

or I'm gonna be exhausted by the time I get on at ten o'clock

'cause I've been going since this morning.

But, yeah, I'm just having such a fantastic time,

the energy's so great and everybody's just like,

"Thank you so much for doing this."

[interviewer] So this is your very first concert ever?

Very first concert ever.

[interviewer] So why is this the one?

'Cause I love Jewel. Love her.

[♪ "Near You Always" plays]

♪ Don't think you realize the effect You have over me ♪

♪ And please don't look at me like that ♪

[audience cheers]

[Jewel] One of the things I was criticized the most for in my music was sincerity,

which is kind of funny.

But I have to say that when I sang for Lilith,

what I noticed in the audience was kind of unabashed sincerity.

♪ Please don't kiss me so sweet ♪

[♪ song continues]

♪ Please don't touch me like that ♪

♪ Makes every other embrace Seem pale and shallow ♪

♪ And please don't look at me like that ♪

♪ It just makes me want to Make you near me always… ♪

For me, looking around, men, especially in the '90s,

were very hetero-focused.

And that mentality made it where men didn't know

that they had permission in their peer group

to go see a female concert.

But to this day, I still see men that are metal fans love my music,

and they always come up to me kind of furtively,

and they're like, "I really like your stuff."

♪ And it makes me wanna Make you near me always ♪

[audience cheers]

-[Mulligan] How'd you like the concert? -It was great.

-Who'd you come to see? -Tracy Chapman.

[Mulligan] All right.

[♪ "Baby Can I Hold You" plays]

♪ Baby, can I hold you tonight? ♪

[Cole] Tracy Chapman was a goddess

and delivered such a powerful set.

♪ Ooh, at the right time… ♪

[Chapman] Lilith Fair Tour, it was a great thing to do.

In some ways, doing a-a festival like that is actually easier

than playing your own show because I-I didn't feel any pressure.

[McLachlan] None of us missed Tracy's set.

[♪ "New Beginning" plays]

♪ Start all over ♪

♪ Start all over… ♪

[Runnals] After the show that night,

the vibes were so good that we just camped backstage.

I was in my early 20s.

Basically, what I did was run the main stage production office.

And it wasn't until we actually hit the road that we really understood

the magnitude of what we were trying to create.

[♪ "Sweet Surrender" plays]

[Runnals] We realized we don't have enough crew

to take this festival to the next city tomorrow.

And took a couple local crew guys and hired them on the spot

and said, "We're gonna give you 20 minutes, go home, pack a bag,

you're on the road with us for the summer."

By comparison, something like a Lollapalooza,

they were doing 15 or 18 shows.

We did 40.

So that's four or five festival shows in a week.

It was absolutely bonkers.

It felt like we were building the airplane while we were already flying it.

It literally felt like there was a woman's touch

all the way through it.

I mean, not only women fronting bands,

but lots of crew members that were females.

And this was the first time you'd seen anything like it.

[technician] Right now, we're just running big long cables

across the stage and up and over.

[Donlon] I think the impact was widespread.

Lilith Fair was looking for female sound engineers,

and female techs, and now there's opportunities.

My boss is Gord Reddy.

Well actually all our bosses are Sarah McLachlan, right?

[Runnals] Lilith was like this incubation

of female talent in front of and behind the stage,

and I think we really created something wonderful for a lot of people.

We were the first tour to bring in extended healthcare.

And these grown men would be crying

because they could send their kids to the dentist.

In hindsight, it's absolutely remarkable that we managed to do it.

[McLachlan] "Everything has found a flow. We've settled into a groove quite nicely."

We are essentially a small traveling town

"complete with all the trappings of small town energy."

The one thing that was a little weird… [chuckles]

…was, especially in the beginning, there was this kind of self-consciousness.

And there was a kind of stiffness to some of us backstage

that didn't really break until the Indigo Girls came out.

[♪ "Galileo" plays]

And they just broke through all of that.

I am incredibly shy and I have terrible social anxiety.

And in the culture I was raised in,

you let the more experienced people come up to you.

I don't know why it was that way. It's just sort of how I was raised.

You weren't allowed, in a way, to, like, go up to them.

But when I got on Lilith, I remember the Indigo Girls were

the greeters of the tour, like, "Hi" and "Welcome."

Hey.

So it was a relief to have somebody to kind of be forward that way. [laughs]

♪ How long till my soul gets it right? ♪

♪ Can any human being Ever reach the highest light? ♪

♪ Except for Galileo… ♪

[audience cheering]

[Saliers] Took a minute.

'Cause they were like, "Amy and Emily are knocking. Don't answer the door."

[chuckles]

I think there's a real effort to…

For everybody to meet each other and to support each other.

-Hi. Karen. -What's your name?

[McLachlan] I remember early on, Amy and Emily were just like,

"Okay, who's gonna sing with us?"

And I was like… [gasps] …"Really, you want me to sing with you?

I would love to. I wanna sing with everybody."

She says, "Well, why aren't you asking?"

And I was like, "You can just do that? You can just ask?"

I remember it being a huge lesson for me. I was like, "Oh, that was so easy."

[chuckles]

[Saliers] Just what Amy and I are really into is making music

a collective thing where everyone gets together and sings.

So those are my favorite times.

And then the idea was born of doing a last song all together.

So suddenly, these artists were backstage

practicing their harmonies, and it was almost surreal.

[♪ "Big Yellow Taxi" plays]

Sheryl Crow.

♪ They took all the trees Put 'em in a tree museum ♪

♪ And they charged the people A dollar and a half just to see 'em ♪

I had a sense that people were a little scared 'cause we were so gay

and so, like, puppy dog-like

and fanning out on everybody.

Not Sheryl.

Do that Sheryl Crow thing on the first two lines.

-Whatever that thing is. -[barks]

[musicians laugh]

-[Ray] Ready? -[Crow] Okay.

One. Two. Three. Four.

♪ Where is the fame? ♪

[Ray] There it is.

♪ Where is the fortune? ♪

[musician] You sound like Sheryl Crow.

♪ Where is the world that denies you? ♪

♪ Who is to blame When my heart finally forfeits ♪

♪ To a road that will only misguide you? ♪

Yeah, that's good. That's good.

[Ray] You sit in a room with them and you realize

how incredibly gifted they are.

And they've made it for a reason, you know? And it's humbling.

Anybody that's back there, y'all, come on out and join us.

We're gonna have a hootenanny.

The representation for women in rock music wasn't there,

and then particularly for queers,

we really had to find a lot of our own way.

-[♪ "Closer To Fine" plays] -[cheering]

[Saliers] You know, we really wanted a broader audience.

We just thought, "Well, this is a great opportunity."

♪ I'm tryin' to tell you somethin' 'Bout my life ♪

♪ Maybe give me insight Between black and white ♪

♪ And the best thing You ever done for me ♪

♪ Is to help me Take my life less seriously ♪

♪ Hey, it's only life after all, right ♪

[yodeling]

-♪ The less I seek my source ♪ -♪ The less I seek my source ♪

♪ Closer I am to fine… ♪

[Saliers] I was just thrilled by that night after night after night.

I never got tired of it.

There were so many crystallized moments of sheer joy, you know?

It was of the women. [chuckles]

[♪ Song continues]

♪ I went to the doctor I went to the mountains ♪

♪ I looked to the children I drank from the fountains ♪

♪ And we go to the doctor… ♪

[Carlile] The life-affirming experience of watching the Indigo Girls.

They were somehow part of the glue

that held all that emotion together for those women.

And seeing those women onstage unconcerned with whether it made them look gay

or overtly feminist or angsty or angry or any of the things

that the Indigo Girls were getting thrown at them.

♪ Pointing us in a crooked line ♪

♪ And the less I seek my source For some definitive ♪

Everybody now.

♪ Closer I am to fine ♪

I just thought there's so much possibility in that.

♪ Closer I am to fine ♪

♪ Closer I am to fine, yeah ♪

-[♪ song ends] -[cheering]

We're calling it Camp Lilith. It's like summer camp

because basically all the artists' dressing room doors are open,

everybody's playing acoustic guitar on the floor

and sitting around singing each other's songs.

-[screaming] -[cheering]

It's just a really great, positive, ego-free energy.

[♪ "Lovefool" plays]

♪ Dear, I fear we're facing a problem ♪

[Jewel] I remember Lilith just became a freight train.

Like, holy smokes, this took on a life of its own that you can't control.

It kept snowballing.

Every day, it evolved and changed and it grew into so many different things.

I don't know if any of us were understanding the magnitude of it.

[reporter] Audience reaction to Lilith Fair was overwhelming.

[reporter 2] Thousands of ticket sales,

hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

[McLachlan] Look at what's being created.

Look at the beautiful feeling, the sisterhood

and everybody out there having this amazing experience.

It was the best drug in the world.

It was as if we had been out there exploring the galaxy kind of all alone,

and when we showed up and there were all these tour buses

and all these different women artists,

it was like, "Whoa. Is this heaven?"

[♪ Song continues]

And there was a lot of glitter.

Sometimes I still find glitter, like, in my underwear.

We're making money. We're making money for ourselves.

We're making money for the music industry,

so that gives us a certain amount of power.

Terry was the one who said, "Well, what if we get a company"

to give us a hundred thousand dollars and talk about how they can also give

"the same amount of money to a charity?"

They were really looking at sponsors who were true to the cause.

Nobody was really doing that.

[♪ "Who Will Save Your Soul" plays]

♪ People livin' their lives For you on TV ♪

♪ They say they're better than you And you agree… ♪

She would take a dollar from every ticket sold

and give it to a local charity

for every place that we went to.

In the spirit of Lilith Fair, in the spirit of promoting women,

promoting a cure for this cancer once and for all.

We have given $2.5 million to charity

which made me extremely proud to be a part of this whole thing.

[cheering]

[Jewel] Everybody was doing well on that lineup.

We were having massive hits.

I went from selling zero records in three years

to selling a million albums every month.

Sarah was just starting to test run her new album, Surfacing.

[reporter] Her fourth album debuted at number two on the Billboard charts.

[Colvin] It was all, like, hitting us really quickly.

And for me, serendipitously,

I was having a hit record come up the charts,

and the only reason I did know what was happening is

because of the audiences at Lilith Fair.

-[audience cheering] -[♪ "Sunny Came Home" plays]

And we would start it with that… [imitates guitar]

And my band mates and I just looked at each other

and we were like, "What is going on here?"

When we started getting that reaction, I'll just never forget it.

♪ And Sunny came home with a mission ♪

♪ She says, "Days go by, I'm hypnotized ♪"

♪ I'm walking on a wire ♪

♪ I close my eyes ♪

♪ And fly out of my mind ♪

♪ Into the fire" ♪

I never expected to play in front of 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people, ever.

And I felt lucky.

[McLachlan] The first year of Lilith Fair was such a massive success.

And then a few months later,

Paula, Shawn, Sheryl, Jewel, Meredith and myself,

we were all nominated at that year's Grammy's.

[guitar riff]

[audience cheering]

[Colvin] This was my dream come true.

I wrote a song that was nominated for Grammy Awards.

[Badu] And the Grammy goes to…

Shawn Colvin and John Leventhal.

Songwriter, Shawn Colvin. John Leventhal, producer.

This is too cool.

We've been doing this a long time and, uh, it's been a long road,

and this does matter.

-We appreciate it, thank you. -[audience cheers]

We were all nominated for multiple, multiple Grammys.

I was nominated for seven that night.

And now let's find out who this year's best new artist will be.

-Paula Cole. -[speaker] All right.

[audience cheering]

This is my dream, getting this award from Aretha Franklin. [chuckles]

That was amazing.

[Colvin] But then Paula Cole,

Sarah McLachlan and I were asked to share the stage

and do this medley,

instead of each of us being able to play our own songs.

Every single song that was nominated for Record of the Year

should have had their own spot.

[McLachlan] At the beginning of it, we were like, "This is bullshit."

The other nominees, Hanson and R. Kelly,

got to perform on their own, so why lump us all together?

We were in the green room.

Like, I know there was a conversation of, "Do we boycott?"

Tonight, to celebrate the remarkable music created

by women last year, here are three great performers.

[McLachlan] Ultimately, the decision was,

"Okay, well, we'll do it. We're not happy about it,

but this is not the hill we're gonna die on today."

[Cole] We were still made into a token.

"Women, it's women, it's…" [chuckles] What a notion.

[Colvin] It was just sad. It was just sad.

It's always haunted me, was that the right thing to do,

to just take what we were offered?

Looking back on it, just say, "No, we're not gonna perform."

That would have been radical.

And they might have done something about it.

So in my stupid fucking unmusical medley,

I happened to raise my hand,

and I didn't shave my armpits.

And, like, that became a thing.

[McLachlan] I was so angry for Paula to be diminished like that

after such a huge night.

Who cares? But that's what it became about.

The desire for wealth is as natural as Paula Cole's armpits.

-Where have all the razor blades gone? -Sir, please.

Sir, please.

I think I know why the cowboys aren't coming around. [laughs]

You know what? At first, I thought she had Don King in a headlock.

-That's what I thought. -[audience laughs]

[Cole] Then there's Jay Leno on fucking Tonight Show

shining his shoes because it was such a joke.

Then they wanted me to be on the show and, like, laugh along with it,

and I just… No, you know?

[McLachlan blows] You just pick yourself back up,

and you believe, and you keep going, and that's what being an artist is.

We did all this, but, God, we're still... we're still here.

Shit, okay.

Well, we just gotta keep going.

[McBride] Lilith was, of all of the big organized festivals,

was the most successful monetarily and, uh, everybody loved it.

Lilith Fair was a huge success, so Sarah decided to do it again.

[Diamond] As many accolades as we were getting,

we were getting slammed every once in a while,

being called "Lily-white Fair,"

that there wasn't enough diversity.

[reporter] How intentional was it that there was no hip-hop artists or anything?

I suppose, uh, the lineup is not as diverse as it could be.

[Saliers] I remember when the criticism was first coming in,

she was very open-minded to accepting it,

working her way through it, you know,

admitting that maybe mistakes were made.

That's something I've always admired about her,

was her public discussion of "Well, let me think about that.

Maybe you're right, maybe there's something more I need to think about."

We're growing and-and learning as we go because this is the first time,

like I said, any of us have done this.

So, there's lots of little mistakes, but they're all lessons,

they're all valuable lessons, you know, that enable us to get better.

[Diamond] In year one, we had an opportunity that we never seized.

We need to really do outreach in terms of other artists

and live in the solution, not the problem.

And as a matter of fact, Lilith '98,

they're talking about the addition now of some of the R&B acts,

and Erykah Badu is gonna be added.

I'm Erykah Badu, and I'd like to thank you for having me.

[audience cheers]

[♪ "On & On" plays]

♪ I am feeling kinda hungry 'Cause my high is coming down ♪

♪ Don't feed me yours Why? ♪

[backup singers] ♪ 'Cause your food does not endure ♪

♪ I think I need a cup of tea The world keeps burning ♪

♪ Oh, what a day ♪

This is the best concert I've ever been to.

Who's your favorite?

Oh. Erykah Badu. Definitely.

[Badu] I know that being a part of the Lilith Fair

expanded my audience greatly.

You know, people who would not get to hear of an Erykah Badu,

or listen to even my type of genre of music

-were exposed to it. -[audience cheers]

I just adorn myself with my culture and share that with everybody.

Come as I am and, you know, they accept it and love it because I am me.

I just thought that was the way it was,

because before, I hadn't experienced

any of the negative stuff that happens.

My welcome into the industry was by Sarah McLachlan and Bonnie Raitt.

-[drums rolling] -[audience cheering]

[McLachlan] And we grew the commercial viability of the festival

because we had a diverse group of artists.

What we hadn't seen on other festivals was a very mixed genre platform.

It was like Emmylou Harris or Meshell Ndegeocello.

Then you had Missy Elliott.

They were women that were all at the top of their game in their world.

[Coppola] Missy Elliott was already an icon.

She was the shit.

And when I found out she was doing a short set,

yeah, it's a big fucking deal. It's Missy Elliott. Come on.

[McLachlan] I loved Missy Elliott.

But when we booked her, she'd never toured before.

She did her first touring dates on Lilith.

You could just feel the energy of the day just kind of build and build and build.

[Rempel] She was meant to arrive at a certain time,

and there's no Missy Elliott.

And then we get a call, it's like,

"Oh, hey. Uh, my bus broke down. I'm on a highway five miles away.

-But I'm gonna get there." -[car tires screech]

Five minutes later, this red convertible pulls up,

some dude she's flagged down on the highway.

She comes out, she puts on her inflatable suit.

-What's up, y'all? -[Rempel] And it happened.

-Uh. -[audience cheers]

Hey, yo, you know what? Me, I'm supa fly.

And you're about to get up. Get up with me.

All of a sudden, you see the audience respond to her.

[♪ "Sock It 2 Me" plays]

And she fucking nailed that shit.

♪ Ooh, ah Sock it to me like you want to, ooh ♪

♪ I can take it like a pro, you know ♪

♪ Do it long throw with the backstroke ♪

♪ My hormones jumping like a disco ♪

♪ I be popping mess like some Crisco ♪

♪ All you gotta say is "Missy, go" ♪

♪ And when you say go I won't move slow… ♪

[Elliott] It was a beautiful thing.

I don't know that I was gonna get the response that I got.

I felt good when I was first asked, you know.

And this only just put the icing on the cake.

Ladies.

[♪ "Ladies First" plays]

♪ Ooh, ladies first, ladies first ♪

Come on. Yeah.

♪ Ooh, ladies first, ladies first ♪

♪ Who said that the ladies Couldn't make it, you must be blind ♪

♪ If you don't believe Well, here, listen to this rhyme ♪

♪ Ladies first there's no time to rehearse ♪

♪ I'm divine and my mind expands Throughout the universe ♪

♪ A female rapper With the message to send ♪

♪ The Queen Latifah Is a perfect specimen ♪

♪ Can I get some? ♪

This is one of the best tours I've ever been on.

I came out on the road to rock these stages,

and I wanted to do it.

I think it's a good thing that we highlight ourselves

and give ourselves, you know, give the ladies in that audience

a positive image to look at.

Of woman who are out here doing their thing.

[♪ "Ready To Run" plays]

You got Dixie Chicks who bring you kind of a country feeling.

We doing it, that's all I can really say.

♪ Ready to run ♪

♪ Ready to run ♪

♪ Ready to run Yeah ♪

The irony is the people who criticized never went.

[♪ Song ends]

That is so mean.

Fucked up.

Early on, there were a lot of female critics

who kinda ripped the crap out of us.

I just don't know how much more of these little, waifish

alternative singers I can take.

Now please, just give me an old-fashioned,

sweaty, big-tittied bitch of rock and roll, okay?

[audience cheers]

Before I really knew that much about it, I just assumed it was sort of very, um,

like Ladies, you know, of the Canyon vibe.

The earnestness of it made it a little bit like

this was not to be taken as seriously as it should have been.

I was kinda, like, poking at it one minute, but why am I poking at it?

'Cause I really would like to be… hang out with all these people.

That's really what I wanted to do.

I said, "Just come. Come and see this and witness it,

and I think you'll change your mind."

[Bernhard] Sarah McLachlan called me, and she said,

"Sandra, we're putting together somewhat of an experiment. It could fail.

We need your light, your love, your energy. Will you be there for us?"

I said, "You better believe it, baby."

-[cheering] -[applause]

They brought people like me on.

So they wanted somebody with some edge.

And then the dates that I was on, Chrissie Hynde was on.

And then the two of us were, like, stirring shit up.

Now, when these women wrote a lyric and sang a song, you know they had lived it.

They wrote it, sang it, snorted it.

They fucked it. They lived it. They created the road.

There was no road before these women.

One, two… One, two, drink your beer!

[♪ "Message of Love" plays]

[McBride] At first, Chrissie Hynde was not a big advocate of Lilith Fair.

[McLachlan] She came on with a bit of an attitude.

She was like, "I don't even know what I'm doing here with you bitches."

And as the shows went on,

she warmed up and went, "Oh, this is actually… this is really fun."

♪ Now the reason we're here ♪

♪ As man and woman ♪

♪ Is to love each other… ♪

[McLachlan] During "Middle of the Road,"

I basically went and flashed them right before the solo.

[audience cheers]

Gobsmacked, Chrissie falls to her knees and makes a big deal.

I was like, "Yes. I brought Chrissie Hynde to her knees."

I saw them. [chuckles]

And, my God, they were beautiful.

[Hynde] Well, they think I'm such a hard-ass.

I thought it would be a little bit more flowy dresses and stuff, you know.

But it was just a good tour to get on.

I don't care that it's women.

♪ Like Brigitte Bardot… ♪

If you're talking about women in rock,

if you must, and it is just a media fabrication,

'cause no one really thinks about stuff like this.

There's a lot of pages to fill.

It's mostly the girl journalists that give me all this "women in rock" thing.

[♪ "Bitch" plays]

[Powers] I was working at Spin and The New York Times.

Every year was "the year of women in rock."

Every single year.

That was something that I just rolled with because I didn't have any choice.

You tell a bunch of boys that there's going to be this festival

targeted at young women, ah, you know what their reaction's gonna be.

It's not gonna be, "Yeah, let's go." It's gonna be a laugh.

Because it's aimed at the wrong people.

It's aimed at regular women.

Somehow, by the '90s, we had developed this idea

the teenage girl is this frivolous person.

And forget adult women.

The idea that a mom would wanna go to a musical festival? Oh, my goodness.

♪ I'm a bitch I'm a lover ♪

♪ I'm a child I'm a mother ♪

♪ I'm a sinner I'm a saint ♪

♪ I do not feel ashamed ♪

♪ I'm your hell I'm your dream ♪

♪ I'm nothing in between ♪

♪ You know you wouldn't want it Any other way ♪

♪ So take me as I am… ♪

[Powers] Just walking in and seeing all the women together,

after going to concerts for 15 years

and only being, you know, one of a few women among men,

that was such a great shift.

That felt amazing to me as, like, a long-time music fan and music critic,

but also weird.

Lilith Fair came from a very radical place,

but in the moment, it felt totally mainstream,

totally in the center.

And that was its power.

Every day we did this press conference, which was a pain in the ass.

Just something I've been reading,

people referring to this show as "Chick-apalooza" and your reaction.

I have a bit of a problem with it, but that's just me.

I just think in some ways it's a bit marginalizing.

[McLachlan] It was hard. It was also embarrassing.

It was frustrating because I felt like,

you know, sometimes the criticism wasn't warranted.

"Here's my stock ten adjectives that I'm going to punch in to this review."

And I don't find anybody adequately critiques anything anymore.

Calling it "Vulva-palooza"

and, like, all of these just ridiculously derogatory crazy things.

[McLachlan] There were many times I wanted to say, "Fuck you."

[reporter] Don't you lose some power when you become mainstream?

[sighs] I want it to be successful.

[journalist] Do you think there is a danger in making gender a genre?

I think the danger lies in the media lumping all women together.

[reporter] TIME Magazine last week just reported

"The death of feminism." Is this true?

Oh, please. The death of feminism? Okay, well, are we as women dead?

The most idiotic questions.

I just wanna know if any of you guys wanna dish some dirt on-on your fellow artists?

[reporter] Do you guys have a slumber party in between shows?

[reporter 2] Is it still mostly a chick thing?

[reporter 3] Respond to the criticism that, "They must hate men."

[reporter 4] Man-haters. These women hate men.

I don't think, personally, that any of us necessarily are against men.

[reporter 5] The perception being that this music is for women only.

I don't understand why it's considered exclusionary.

I think when we were just getting lambasted by the press,

one time I said, "God, maybe we should include men."

We also plan to be… starting to include men as headliners as well.

Emmylou was like, "Whoa, whoa, honey.

[chuckles]

Can I just say, don't go there."

She said, "Let it be what it is. Y-You got this."

And I was like, "Yeah, I do. Thank you."

Well, I mean, at that point, it seemed to me it was already a success.

So I can't imagine why she would've felt any doubt.

When you think back to before there was Lilith Fair,

there was so much opposition to it.

There was so much negativity about the fact that we were…

But I can't, uh, emphasize enough what Sarah has accomplished.

Women are political simply for saying, "I deserve space."

People read too much into this, into Lilith, and make an issue.

Because that's how everyone makes a living by making an issue out of something.

Actually, it just happens that they're all women artists,

and no one's really making a big statement, do you know what I mean?

[Mclachlan] Sinéad was treated horribly by the press

and wider culture for speaking out,

and being her authentic self, unapologetic.

We were all so inspired by her honesty.

[reporter] Your website says a special guest will open the show at 4:40.

-Yeah, well, we'll have to see… -[audience member chuckles]

It's the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[all laugh]

[O'Connor] To get there and find that I was so kind of respected by those women

was a major boost to my kind of confidence and self-esteem, you know what I mean?

That in the very male world, you can often feel…

In the male world of media and the music business

you can often feel very unheard as a woman artist, you know what I mean?

But I realized actually that I had been heard.

Yes, I found it a very healing experience.

[♪ "Fire On Babylon" plays]

[Merchant] Nobody missed her set ever.

She would walk out on stage and open her mouth and the sound…

One of the most chilling sounds I've ever heard was Sinéad crying "Fire on Babylon"

through a massive wall of speakers to 35,000 people.

♪ Fire ♪

♪ Fire ♪

♪ Fire on Babylon ♪

♪ Oh, yes, a change has come ♪

♪ Fire on Babylon ♪

♪ Fire ♪

♪ Fire ♪

[McLachlan] Sinéad was really important for me to have on,

because I was so in awe of her and her immense power.

[audience cheers]

[♪ "Angel" plays]

And then to get to know her a little bit and to see the vulnerability.

[McLachlan, O'Connor] ♪ In the arms of the angel ♪

♪ Fly away from here ♪

♪ From this dark cold hotel room ♪

♪ And the endlessness that you fear ♪

♪ You are pulled from the wreckage ♪

♪ Of your silent reverie ♪

♪ You're in the arms of the angel ♪

♪ May you find ♪

♪ Some comfort here ♪

[McLachlan] She's showing me the way.

If I can create something half as good as her…

I keep telling people that if the world outside the Lilith Fair

were more like this, I'd wanna spend more time out there, you know? [chuckles]

[Diamond] In year two, we needed a co-headliner,

and our first call and only call was Natalie.

Natalie really embodied free spirit. She had a freakin' swing.

[♪ "Kind & Generous" plays]

[Merchant] It just sounded like an incredible opportunity,

because when I left 10,000 Maniacs

after 12 years of feeling like I was the last woman on earth.

I had made a concerted effort to distance myself

from what was going on in the business of music.

But Lilith was gentle and friendly, and I loved that.

-We're at Lilith Fair. Yeah. -We're best friends.

Is it on?

-Now press the red button. -I already did.

-Hello, world. -Hi, world.

You're saving lives here. And you're opening up a world

to people who would have no way of getting there, any other way.

It's the coolest place

because everybody can express themselves internally and externally

and everyone's accepted.

It's like a get-together place, like, where everyone can get together and…

-Have fun. -…have fun.

It's been such an inspiration to all our lives.

And I'm grateful to be here today. My heart is truly glad. I love you, Sarah.

-You're the only one that would listen. -You're here. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

-Feel so much better now. -Me too.

I'm really happy that there's something like this that can help.

I'm gonna cry. I have to go back out there.

♪ I'm bound to thank you for it… ♪

[Merchant] Give me a second.

Let me just pull myself together.

Oh!

Isn't it a beautiful sunset?

[Levy] When I attended Lilith Fair, it was a gorgeously sunny day,

but there's also the possibility

that my memory is just wrapped in this golden, sepia glow

because being there was one of the earliest memories I've had of safety.

I was 12 or 13 at the time and still in the closet

and had been bullied and never really felt safe anywhere that I was

because I wasn't being myself.

But when you look around and you see people smiling and laughing

and holding on to each other,

and you just had people who were seeing themselves, celebrating themselves,

it felt like this kind of quiet revolution.

I was like, "What is this freedom?

So many happy people, hugging and kissing."

I am the Lilith Fairy. F-A-I-R… "Fair" with a "y."

I came here and I was very timid.

Being surrounded by so many strong women helped me come out to myself

and to be totally honest and not to be inhibited

around other people anymore.

-It just helped me so much. -[concertgoer] Whoo!

[Nguyen] When I think back,

I think was 12 years old.

Being queer, but at that age, not understanding what that was.

To that point, I'd never been to a real concert.

I recall groups of queer friends or whatever.

But at the time, it didn't occur to me at all.

I was just like, "These people look fun."

But I have to be honest,

I think misogyny and homophobia made it an easy target.

It's almost as though you wouldn't hear it referenced in the mainstream

without it being the joke.

The largest collection of female rock singers ever

to tour together.

I wrote a song about it, and I'd like to share it.

I think it'll really move some people.

-It's called, uh, "Sausage of Pain." -[audience laughs]

Listen to me. I'm a bi-level haircut away from Lilith Fair.

And so, I just tried to be a part of that more dominant narrative

of this fucking joke, you know.

Like, I'm also in on the joke, so don't… You know?

I won't be associated

with what you think that was, you know?

But, I mean, how devastating is that?

You know, I participated in the disparagement

of my own components.

[concertgoer] I think it's on of the only places that you can go

where being a racist or a homophobe or somebody like that,

you're in the minority.

[cheering]

[Vega] The media's perception was that it was all women,

but actually, there were a lot of men who came

because they love women and they wanted to see women performing.

-We're here to see Sarah McLachlan! -Whoo!

No other way to say it. It's Sarah McLachlan.

She is the best. She brings out the love in all of us.

[McLachlan] Every festival that I knew of, I wouldn't wanna go.

Because I don't think I'd feel particularly safe.

And I feel like Lilith is sort of the antithesis of that.

[♪ "Never Said" plays]

[cheering]

♪ I never said nothing ♪

♪ Oh, baby, I never said nothing… ♪

[Phair] There was no question that everyone who was there was welcome.

They were not just coming to see music.

They were coming to support an idea.

I can be safe. I can be respected.

I can be open.

I haven't been on a bill like that.

That was a very Sarah experience.

-[squeals] -[giggles]

I'm not slipping in my tongue. I'm not.

[Vega] The way she interacted with people backstage was humble.

It was kind. It was very deeply spiritual.

She would leave you little gifts. She would leave little notes.

[♪ Song ends]

[Merchant] Sarah thought this is our home away from home.

Let's make it feel that way.

There were pillows and tapestries… [chuckles]

…and people handing their babies off to each other as they walked on stage.

Lots of breastfeeding going on

and people bringing their mothers to the tour.

[Colvin] Lilith Fair was the place to perform if you were nine months pregnant.

I felt like it was perfect.

[McLachlan] Erykah brought a baby to the tour.

[♪ "What's Going On" plays]

♪ Mother, mother ♪

♪ There are too many of you crying ♪

♪ Brother, brother, brother ♪

♪ Far too many of you dying… ♪

[Badu] I was a new mom.

I was going through, uh, the changes that we go through as women.

And they really catered to my feminine emotions

and sensibilities and needs.

♪ We've got to find a way ♪

♪ To bring some loving here today… ♪

[Merchant] What I value was the tangibility that I saw of mothering

and being an artist coexisting.

♪ Mother, mother ♪

♪ Everybody says that we're wrong… ♪

And then having Bonnie Raitt scream in my ear,

"I've waited my whole life for this." You know?

Is this the camera I look into when I cry? [laughs]

-♪ Picket signs ♪ -♪ Sister ♪

-♪ And picket lines ♪ -♪ Sister ♪

-♪ Don't punish me ♪ -♪ Sister ♪

-♪ With brutality ♪ -♪ Sister ♪

-♪ Talk to me ♪ -♪ Sister ♪

-♪ So you can see ♪ -♪ Sister ♪

-♪ What's going on ♪ -♪ What's going on ♪

-♪ What's going on ♪ -♪ What's going on ♪

♪ What's going on… ♪

The vibe was different. It was less competitive

and a little bit more considerate.

There was just less macho posturing.

It was just revolutionary and new to me, because it just hadn't happened before.

[♪ "If It Makes You Happy" plays]

[Raitt] The feeling of camaraderie was palpable.

There was geographic coming together,

generational coming together and musical coming together

in a way that we wouldn't have intersected probably before.

♪ We've been far ♪

♪ Far away from here… ♪

For me to share the stage with Bonnie Raitt

who, when I was 17,

she was the first woman I'd ever seen front a band, holding a guitar.

And she actually inspired me to do what I'm doing.

♪ If it makes you happy ♪

♪ It can't be that bad ♪

♪ If it makes you happy ♪

♪ Then why the hell are you so sad? ♪

[Badu] She has so much experience and she was so comfortable.

She waved a lot of that around like a wand,

and we all were infected by it.

-Bonnie Raitt! -[audience cheers]

[McLachlan] We had such a range of talent, from icons like Bonnie

to artists who were just starting their careers, being discovered at Lilith.

So you have… Basically the B stage is right over home plate.

We can do all kinds of different things that happen to help promote artists.

'Cause the thing with Lilith is we gotta be able to break new talent.

[♪ "It's All About Me" plays]

♪ Tonight, baby It's all about me ♪

♪ Oh ♪

-You're really young too, right? -Yeah. I'm 19 years old.

This is a great opportunity that I'm not gonna get, you know, all the time.

And also you have new artists that aren't exactly heard of yet

and are being discovered.

-[cheering] -[♪ "At Last" plays]

♪ At last ♪

♪ My love has come along… ♪

We had Christina on a ten-by-ten deck

in the middle of the field, next to the bathrooms.

And suddenly, this girl starts to sing,

and the radio's going wild and people are like,

"You gotta get out here and see this girl."

And that happened all the time.

[♪ "Here With Me" plays]

♪ I won't sleep ♪

♪ And I can't breathe ♪

♪ Until you're resting here with me ♪

[♪ "I See God in You" plays]

♪ Every time that I see your face ♪

♪ I wonder What lies beneath your smile ♪

[♪ "Hey, Man!" plays]

♪ And there's a shadow in the sky ♪

♪ And it looks like rain Yeah, yeah ♪

[Fraser] We didn't just have B stages.

We were one of the first people to set up a village,

which nobody was doing.

So, we've got over 40 tents to get set up here every day.

If somebody's on the Village Stage and it's a brand-new artist

and they perform in front of 2,000 people,

they can walk over here and sign their new CD

and they'll generate sales for them.

Sarah and all of us wanted the sponsors to be inclusive

and to be part of what's going on.

Of course, Lilith Fair was very much pro-choice.

And that's what we did.

But we took it on the chin in so many places.

[Diamond] We were like a gentle threat for some people.

-Yay, Planned Parenthood. -[cheers]

Like, the presence of Planned Parenthood

really flipped people out.

We were in Texas, and a venue decided that they wanted to exclude…

The local Planned Parenthood affiliate from the event.

I have a long history working with Planned Parenthood

and being a volunteer for them, so it just incensed me.

I personally feel like it's very deceptive of the

people who own this venue to invite the

Lilith Fair knowing what kind of stance that

we take on these things, and then at the

last minute refuse to have one of our groups

give out flyers.

[McLachlan] Joan talking about the pro-choice thing

when she was like, "Fuck that."

I was super proud of her for doing it, but I was also fighting my good girl,

"don't rock the boat" thing that I was brought up with

and that was hammered into me since the moment I was born.

I mean, I think it's asinine that you have to have this argument

about handing out condoms.

It's pretty silly. But again, free speech. Everybody has their own views.

Yeah. I really wanna support them and have it out in the village,

but… [stammers] …I just never know what to say.

But you think about it and see what you want to do.

All right.

[Osborne] The decision was made

that Planned Parenthood would be allowed in,

but that artists were not allowed to talk about them.

That was the compromise that was made.

I didn't make that compromise.

So, I put my whole band

in the "I am the face of pro-choice Texas" t-shirts.

"We want to thank Planned Parenthood for being here."

[♪ "I Feel So Good" plays]

[McLachlan] I had never made a stand for anything in my life

in that kind of powerful of a way.

So, I was enthralled and envious

of her strength and "fuck you" -ness.

A national group called Feminists for Life are angered at Lilith Fair

because they believe that the refusal of getting a booth

at the Lilith Fair village 'cause they take a pro-life stance is hypocritical

against the inclusive pro-women attitude they feel Lilith Fair should invoke.

So I wanted to get your comments on that.

Well, this is my festival, so I can do what I want. [chuckles]

It was sort of the first time I kind of stood up and said that.

And I was terrified to say that because I'm like,

"This goes against everything that I know how to do.

Just keep your mouth shut."

You know, we, as the organizers,

get to pick and choose the people who come and table.

[Davis] Dealing with protestors was a daily occurrence.

We would get folks that would try to block… [stammers]

…the audience entrance at the parking lots.

They would try to bullhorn and shout people out

at the ticketed entry.

[chattering]

[Fraser] In Atlanta, we had a bomb threat.

People wanna blow us up because we're pro-choice.

I'd never seen that kind of self-righteous rage

and anger aimed at anything that I was part of.

[Fraser] You don't understand what it's like to have that responsibility

of having 20,000 people and somebody looking to blow you up.

[Oberthier] We got 18,000 people here.

If we tell them the truth, we're gonna have a panic on our hands.

We did have bomb threats as well as other call-in threats.

We would validate each of them.

We would seek input from public safety, both police and fire,

to check for vulnerabilities and breaches and unattended items, et cetera.

We don't wanna have any harassment. Any... We don't want anything.

We wanna make sure. We want to be proactive at all times.

The women who play here, for example, the Dixie Chicks, I wrote them a letter

and asked them to reconsider singing and to stand up for women's rights,

what they truly are.

That's why we came up with this shirt.

"Peace and justice begins in the womb, Sarah."

Jerry Falwell is going after the Lilith Fair Concert Tour.

Falwell's newspaper, The National Liberty Journal,

says the tour, which features women artists, is named for a demon.

For me, I just had to constantly remind myself of…

I can't be everything for everybody.

This festival can't be everything for everybody.

I could feel that same strange feeling seeping in again.

That feeling of I've been on the road too long.

My very essence is starting to seep away from me.

Something out in the world is shifting.

[crew member] What are you doing?

Uh, just writing in my journal. Writing the day's exciting exploits.

"Sheryl went off to do Woodstock,

and we got to watch the debauchery on pay-per-view."

-[guitar plays] -[cheering]

This is 1999, motherfucker.

Take those Birkenstocks and stick them up your fuckin' ass.

[Diamond] We had an understanding with Sheryl Crow

that Sheryl could go do Woodstock.

[Crow] If there's anything to be said for Woodstock carrying the tradition

of capturing the social consciousness,

then perhaps this Woodstock definitely stood to its name.

[festivalgoer] SHOW US YOUR TITS!

You'd have to pay way more than you paid to get in to see my tits.

[Jewel] It was premeditated.

It was self-aware in really negative ways.

And it was just gasoline on the worst of the '90s male culture.

Monica Lewinsky is a fucking hoe, and Bill Clinton is a goddamn pimp.

[cheering]

[Crow] What's going on right now in the social consciousness is

a lot of young white people who are angry.

[yelling]

[Crow] It was not a matter of them being led down the path of destruction

by Limp Bizkit or Kid Rock.

They were... They were ready to rage.

[news anchor] New York State Police are reportedly investigating allegations

that four women were raped at last weekend's

Woodstock music festival.

As the three-day concert ended Sunday night,

bonfires blazed out of control and looters battled police.

[reporter] I just wanted to ask Sheryl,

do you have a new perspective on Lilith Fair now

coming off of what transpired at Woodstock?

The day I got back, I ran to Sarah's arms,

sobbed into the bosom of the founder of Lilith.

It really… I mean, that was so shocking for me.

And I'm hoping it's not representing our future as a nation

or the youth of America.

[Diamond] Looking back,

the enormity of what we had created was pretty staggering.

We cannot underplay the importance of gathering.

Lilith did that really well.

[Donlon] The impact was widespread.

There's some fundamental changes in the way women see the idea

of possibility that was born at the Lilith Fair.

[Diamond] These women can sell fucking tickets.

And we proved that.

The power of music.

The power of women.

And the power of purpose.

[cheering]

But nothing lasts forever.

I won a contest for a radio station in Columbus to meet Sarah.

We had to send a videotape in of who her biggest fan was

and they picked it over the radio.

You have allowed radio stations now… We play female artists back-to-back.

That's never happened before until Lilith Fair.

-That's tangible and you did that. -That feels really good, let me tell you.

I love her, and I will always follow her. And I hope she doesn't stay gone too long.

I hope she comes back very soon.

[McLachlan] This will be the last entry in this book,

as it is officially the last day of Lilith Fair.

Today, the 31st of August in the year 1999.

[Harris] I hope that Sarah is incredibly proud of what she's done

and realizing the reverberations of that probably affected not just the audiences

but the artists that she brought into the fold.

[Crow] The other thing that I took away from Lilith was

that we are businesswomen.

We are women who run our tours.

We are women that make the creative decisions.

We are women that set the tone for how everyone gets treated on the road.

I thought, "Oh, man. This is so powerful that I'm gonna take this with me."

Lilith Fair inspired me to form our own "Lilith" in our community.

A tour called Sugar Water. It was totally necessary for us.

[Phair] It was absolutely because of Lilith Fair

that I had ambition to work in the music business again.

[McLachlan] It was a completely, all-encompassing three years.

Let's leave ending on a high note.

Like, we were on top of the world at that point.

My kingdom is in ruins. [laughs]

Pouring rain.

Oh, my God. We were… [chuckles]

We were all a mess on the last day.

I just... I don't quite know what to do next. [sniffles]

Other than put stuff away. [chuckles]

I think there was a sense of, "We did it."

We changed the world a little bit, as-as crazy as that sounds.

-There you are. How was your day home? -Camera. It was good.

How was yours? How you feeling?

I had talked to Sarah a few times,

and I remember her saying, "We've proved our point."

This can exist.

"Now it's time for women to go out and create their own small Liliths."

[McLachlan] What do I have to prove anymore?

I know I grew up with Lilith.

I came in incredibly green and naive.

This huge monumental shift from essentially being a child

to becoming a woman and becoming way clearer

in who I was and how I was gonna show up in the world and what I believed in.

-There you go. -[McLachlan] Excellent. Do you want me to…

Sarah wanted to start a family. Di and myself started our family.

So everybody wanted to take a breather.

In a few hours, you're gonna be playing your final Lilith Fair concert,

and I'm wondering if that has sunk in and are you having any second thoughts?

No, I'm-I'm happy that it's... that I'm going home tomorrow,

even though this has been an amazing ride.

I've loved every minute of it.

-[audience cheering] -[♪ "I Shall Be Released" plays]

"…the very last Lilith Fair…"

♪ They say everything can be replaced ♪

♪ Yet every distance is not near ♪

♪ So I remember every face ♪

♪ Of every man who put me here ♪

♪ I see my light come shining ♪

♪ From the west unto the east ♪

♪ Any day now, any day now ♪

♪ I shall be… ♪

[vocalizing] ♪ …released ♪

Good night, y'all!

The last hurrah.

That's it. I'm done. No more shows.

A new life has begun. Love, Sarah.

[♪ Song fades, ends]

I get asked at almost every single interview.

"Are you gonna bring Lilith back? We need Lilith."

And I'm like, "Yeah, we do. Or we need something like it."

But it would have to look really different,

because we did revisit Lilith in 2010.

And we didn't succeed.

A real cultural shift had happened.

That whole time that came after Lilith,

the general pop culture was moving away from singer-songwriters.

There were programmers saying, "Never again."

[Ray] There were these few years

where radio stations were playing Lilith Fair stuff

and the next few years were like,

"We don't play that artist. They were at Lilith Fair."

-It's, like, what? Like, really? -Too many women.

[McLachlan] The men in power in the music industry

wanted to keep things the way they were.

So, trying to climb out from underneath that was very challenging.

But progress, as we know, always finds a way.

[cheering]

[♪ "Cool About It" plays]

[Powers] I recently went to see Boygenius.

♪ Once, I took your medication To know what it's like ♪

All of these young people singing at the top of their lungs,

that's what Lilith felt like, you know?

♪ …do without it Knowing that it probably isn't true ♪

[cheering]

[Powers] What was condemned about Lilith in the '90s is now embraced widely

as this beautiful turn of the wheel…

Where women are at the center of our culture.

[Rodrigo] Women singer-songwriters in the '90s are probably

the biggest source of inspiration that I have in my career.

I'm constantly looking to them for inspiration.

They're sort of my Northern Stars.

[♪ "If It Makes You Happy" plays]

♪ It can't be that bad ♪

[Crow] You don't know who you're inspiring.

You don't know who's going to be witness to what you're doing and think,

"That's what I want to be. That's what I want to do."

Just like Bonnie was for me.

[♪ Song ends]

Hey!

[cheering]

What a joyful noise that is, y'all.

I first came here when I was ten years old.

But nothing really changed me until 1997,

when I was sitting way out there at the crest of that hill

and I witnessed for the first time Lilith Fair.

This is The Gorge.

This is Sarah McLachlan's house.

Please welcome Sarah McLachlan.

[♪ "Building A Mystery" plays]

♪ You come out in night ♪

♪ That's when the energy comes ♪

♪ And the dark side's light ♪

♪ And the vampires roam… ♪

[Phair] The reason why people who weren't even there

feel connected to Lilith Fair is

because it really does embody the world we wish existed right now for us.

We get to celebrate the fact that we were kind of defying the odds every night.

♪ You woke up screaming aloud ♪

♪ A prayer from your secret God ♪

♪ To feed off our fears ♪

♪ And hold back your tears ♪

♪ Oh, you give us a tantrum ♪

♪ And a know-it-all grin ♪

♪ Just when we need one ♪

♪ When the evening's thin… ♪

[McLachlan] Do I think we still need a sisterhood?

Do I think we need to fix the broken systems

that have been created by men for men?

Hell yes.

If we want to change things,

we have to continue building these systems for us.

♪ Building a mystery ♪

[Badu] The encore was always the best part.

That's when we could totally exhale.

We had done it.

Every night, we had done it.

We had changed the frequency of the whole room.

It was just a village of very intelligent,

very powerful,

very creative,

very mission-oriented,

very strong women

on stage together putting a period

at the end of a sentence.

♪ Building a mystery ♪

[cheering]

[♪ "One in a Long Line" plays]

♪ Don't block the sun from warming me ♪

♪ When it's still cold in this forest And heavy branches hang over me ♪

♪ And winds whisper in chorus ♪

♪ I have a soft side And a forgiving heart ♪

♪ But don't mistake me for weak ♪

♪ I'll travel roads That you will never roam ♪

♪ And carry treasures you will never own ♪

♪ 'Cause I am one in a long line ♪

♪ Sound of body, strong of mind ♪

♪ I've worked hard to know myself ♪

♪ You don't get to decide the way I live ♪

♪ Who I love What I forgive ♪

♪ So, why so hard to take me as I am? ♪

♪ Try to see good in everyone ♪

♪ The bleeding heart of a frailty ♪

♪ But it's getting harder To find common ground ♪

♪ When you want to derail me ♪

♪ I am a live wire I am a searing ember ♪

♪ Rising from the deep ♪

♪ The sound of fury Of our mother's voices ♪

♪ All they fought for carrying me ♪

♪ I am one in a long line Sound of body, strong of mind ♪

♪ I've worked hard to know myself ♪

♪ You don't get to decide what I believe ♪

♪ What I'd give up How I grieve ♪

♪ So take your dirty hands Off of my wing ♪

♪ Feeling reckless I'm feeling dire ♪

♪ Don't wanna lie in compliance ♪

♪ Afraid to say what I really feel ♪

♪ Fuck your judgment Your violence ♪

♪ I am a wildfire I am a forest burned ♪

♪ But I will rise You'll see ♪

♪ And if you think That you can bring me down ♪

♪ Well, go ahead and call the cavalry ♪

♪ I am one in a long line… ♪