All language subtitles for Lilith.Fair.Building.a.Mystery.The.Untold.Story.2025.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH.Hi

[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… ♪