{"id":3266,"date":"2026-06-21T19:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3266"},"modified":"2026-06-21T19:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:37:22","slug":"lilith-fair-building-a-mystery-inspires-both-nostalgia-and-a-bad-taste-about-the-90s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3266","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery\u2019 inspires both nostalgia and a bad taste about the \u201890s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When ABC temporarily pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the airwaves, it made international headlines. But there was a subplot in all of the hubbub that I found myself thinking about recently. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Questlove explores another titan of Black music in Earth, Wind & Fire documentary<\/a><\/p>\n

After Kimmel was kicked off, the singer Sarah McLachlan announced that, in solidarity with him, she would not perform a concert designed to promote the September 2025 premiere of the new documentary \u201cLilith Fair: Building a Mystery,\u201d which was about to be released on Hulu. The streamer, much like ABC, is owned by Disney.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was thinking about this moment because I finally got around to watching the documentary, which looks back at the festival and its impact. Organized by McLachlan, Lilith Fair ran from 1997-99 and boasted an all female lineup in an era when DJs generally didn\u2019t even want to play songs by women back to back on the radio. She also made a point of donating money from every ticket sold to charities, and gave Planned Parenthood a booth at stops on the tour. In other words, Sarah McLachlan has been unafraid of taking a stand for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The documentary makes for good if slightly painful watching. An impressive array of participants agreed to speak, including McLachlan (of course), the Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu, Paula Cole, Shawn Colvin, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, and Jewel. That\u2019s only a fraction of the full list of names who participated in the festival, which also included Sinead O\u2019Connor, Queen Latifah, Tracy Chapman, and Fiona Apple. <\/span><\/p>\n

But the documentary\u2019s most powerful moments come when all of these incredibly successful women talk about the parade of misogyny that greeted the tour. Try to get through the footage of the sexist questions the women were asked at the fest\u2019s regular press conferences without wincing with your entire body \u2014 I bet you can\u2019t! Cole, Colvin, and McLachlan were all nominated for Grammys in 1998 and were asked to perform together instead of separately, like the male nominees did. The three debated not performing as a protest, but ultimately went through with it. The dominant press narrative after the show was a fixation on Cole\u2019s temporarily visible armpit hair. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sheryl Crow briefly departed the tour to appear at Woodstock \u201899, which became notorious for its unruly fans and the fact that there were multiple allegations of sexual assault. A contemporaneous interview segment where Crow talks about how there\u2019s a problem with a certain type of angry young white man feels like it could have happened yesterday.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s that element that makes the documentary feel so prescient. The tidal wave of misogyny that greeted the festival feels both very much of its era but also, in retrospect, a clear predictor of what would happen in America in the years to come. <\/span><\/p>\n

But \u201cLilith Fair\u201d is also very clear about the joys that touring together brought everyone. If you don\u2019t already have tremendous affection for the Indigo Girls (wait, why don\u2019t you?), you will after watching it. And it\u2019s worth taking note of the pop star Olivia Rodrigo, who appears in the film to talk about how influential all of those singers were for her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodrigo, the singer of such massive hits as \u201cdrivers license\u201d and \u201cvampire,\u201d has a new tour coming up this summer. On her last tour, proceeds from merch sales went to organizations supporting women, and free condoms and doses of Plan B were handed out at tour stops until a backlash put an end to it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Progress is never guaranteed. But you never know who among the next generation might be listening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Toy Story 5\u2019 rakes in biggest box-office debut of the year with a franchise-best $160 million<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The festival clearly meant a lot to the attendees and performers, but the misogyny that greeted it has aged incredibly poorly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery\u2019 inspires both nostalgia and a bad taste about the \u201890s - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3266\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery\u2019 inspires both nostalgia and a bad taste about the \u201890s - 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