Sarah McLachlan Is Waiting to Pass Her Torch

"“We were constantly pitched against each other as women in our jobs. When we went to radio stations, they would always say, ‘Well, we really love your song, but we can’t add you this week because we added Jewel or Tracy Chapman or Tori Amos.’”"

"“Sarah McLachlan, having an epiphany about how poorly female musicians were treated in the 1990s, took it upon herself to create a festival where they could share the same stage together and prove their collective power in the industry— with a bonus being that ‘a lot of us have truck-driver mouths, and we’re able to have a really good time without pretense or preciousness or hierarchy.’”"

"“But an attempt to recapture that magic by reviving the festival in 2010 was a failure, which McLachlan believes is enough evidence to prove it would be a relic of a bygone era if it were attempted in 2026.”"

"“I think it would be very threatening to a large demographic,” she says. “It would be very enticing to a large demographic too, but it’s an incredibly polarizing world right now. One could argue that’s all the more reason to do it, but that wasn’t the reason to do it in the first place.”"

Lilith Fair was created from the experience of loneliness in a music industry that treated female musicians poorly. Women were often pitched against one another, with radio stations limiting airplay by choosing only one artist at a time. The festival brought women together on the same stage to demonstrate collective strength and create a space without hierarchy or pretense. Lilith Fair ran successfully in 1997, 1998, and 1999, leaving a documented legacy. A revival attempt in 2010 did not succeed, and a future return is viewed as potentially polarizing in the current environment. Any return would require new leadership to do the necessary work.

Read at Vulture