The Lilith Fair documentary, Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story, was released three Sundays ago. Talk about a balm for your Sunday Scaries.
A few years ago I watched both the Netflix and the HBO documentaries on Woodstock ’99. Lilith Fair was the antidote to Woodstock ’99, even though the former ran for three consecutive years, with the last of which landing on the same summer as the latter. Two of the Lilith Fair musicians, Jewel and Sheryl Crow, even appeared at Woodstock ’99 to an appalling audience of toxicity. When I found out that there was a forthcoming documentary on the feminist festival tour, I knew I would end up watching it on the release date.
The documentary dives into the origins of the festival, the radio mandate that two women artists cannot be played back to back, the beta test of the Sarah McLachlan / Paula Cole double bill, the Grammy’s making the three female artists up for Best New Artist share a performance, the failure to achieve intersectional feminism and consequent efforts to remediate how white it initially was, and how the tour was a well-run machine.
During the halcyon days of Lilith Fair, I was in middle school. Even though I did not have the purchasing power to make a concert stop happen for me, I was extremely attuned to popular culture having just returned to the states after a long term station in Italy. I spent my summers in front of the television watching MTV and VHL. It was clear to anyone who enjoyed a cable subscription and spare time to watch it, that Lilith Fair was a big effing deal.
Will I watch the documentary again? One hundo p. In the meantime, how about a playlist of the highlights of Lilith Fair artisits?
