When Olivia Rodrigo found out there had been an all-female touring festival in the ’90s, she was in “disbelief.” That’s one thing you’ll learn by watching the trailer for the new Hulu documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story.
In the trailer, Lilith Fair co-founder Sarah McLachlan describes the impetus for creating the all-female festival. “Promoters said, ‘You can’t put two women on the same bill. People won’t come,'” she says. “That’s complete b*******. And it put a huge fire under my butt to prove them wrong.”
“There wasn’t a lot of support for women,” recalls Lilith Fair artist Sheryl Crow in the trailer. “We weren’t able to do what we knew we could do.”
“Lilith became a freight train,” notes fellow participant Jewel. “Like, holy smokes it took on a life of its own.”
We also learn that the festival received bomb threats, and televangelist Jerry Falwell criticized it for naming itself after a biblical figure considered to be a “demon.”
And Olivia will definitely make you feel old when she says in the trailer, “Finding out all of my favorite artists had played at this event — I was in disbelief that I’d never heard of it before.”
She adds, “Women singer/songwriters of the ’90s, I’m constantly looking to them for inspiration. They’re my Northern stars.”
Other stars interviewed in the film include Bonnie Raitt, Paula Cole, Emmylou Harris, Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu and Brandi Carlile.
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story premieres on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ on Sept. 21.
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