A new documentary will look back on the legacy of Lilith Fair, the groundbreaking music festival that changed everything for women in the music industry. Earlier this week, the news dropped that production wrapped on the upcoming feature-length doc, directed by Ally Pankiw (I Used to Be Funny) and created with the support of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, founder of Lilith Fair. 

Lilith Fair was a cultural phenomenon in the late 1990s. Tired of the music industry constantly pitting women artists against each other, McLachlan assembled a superstar lineup of women artists who would perform at massive concerts across North America. 

The festival became an iconic celebration of women’s talent— featuring 300 women artists including stars like Sheryl Crow, Tracy Chapman, and Fiona Apple, and helping to launch the careers of artists like Missy Elliott, The Chicks, Nelly Furtado, and Christina Aguilera.

Its impact is undeniable—in its three years, Lilith Fair grossed over $52 million (of which $10+ million was donated to women’s charities) and drew in more than 1.5 million attendees. 

Photo by Shauna Gold

Along with never-before-seen archival footage, the documentary will reunite Lilith Fair performers Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, Jewel, Mýa, and Indigo Girls, as well as interviews with women artists of today shaped by the festival’s impact, including Olivia Rodrigo and Brandi Carlile.

“Lilith Fair exemplifies the ‘cool older sister’ of the music industry, who already knows the joys and nightmares of being a woman and tries to make the path a little bit easier for future generations,” says director Ally Pankiw. “I want to give a deeper understanding of the festival to the young female, non-binary and queer musicians and music fans who picked up a guitar or tickets to a concert for the first time because Lilith showed them how.”

The documentary is produced by Canadian actor Dan Levy’s Not A Real Production Company and Elevation Pictures. Levy says Lilith Fair holds a special place in his heart, and remembers it one of the first places he felt at home.

“The power of a group of women proving an entire industry wrong was a tremendous thing to experience,” says Levy. “While it is now seen as an odds-defying success story, it was an uphill battle every step of the way.”

The film will trace this uphill battle, helmed by McLachlan, and the huge wave of backlash that Lilith Fair received. While the tour was subject to plenty of criticism, spurred on by the toxic culture and misogyny of the music industry in the 90s, it created waves in popular culture that are still being felt today, and was massively successful in bringing feminist and queer artists into the mainstream.

The doc is inspired by the comprehensive 2019 article, “Building a Mystery: An Oral History of Lilith Fair”, from Vanity Fair and Epic Magazine, written by Jessica Hopper with Sasha Geffen and Jenn Pelly.

Lilith Fair will premiere during the 2025-26 season of documentary showcase The Passionate Eye on CBC and CBC Gem.