Olivia Rodrigo’s Star-Studded Daisy Chain Fields Raises $20M, Brought Joy That Beat The Heat, Will Return In ’27

There was little doubt just how the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival would end.

Headlining her own festival at Irvine, California’s Great Park Aug. 29, Olivia Rodrigo announced before launching into “deja vu” — a highlight of her live performances that always includes heaps of crowd participation — that there’d be one more song after it. The legendary Stevie Nicks, announced as one of her special guests, had yet to join her on stage.

Rodrigo and her band exited stage left after the final notes of “deja vu” and a chant of “Stevie!” rumbled through the 45,000 packed in front of the Dandelion Stage and crescendoed when a roadie set up Nicks’ signature, scarf-esconced mic stand. To remove any doubt, the roadie checked the mic by saying “Stevie.”

And when Rodrigo and Nicks came on stage and when Nicks’ long-time guitarist Waddy Wachtel plucked the classic opening riff on “Landslide,” cheers and tears in equal amounts gushed from the throng.

It was a sweet and poignant duet to cap a successful festival — it raised $10 million for non-profits benefitting women and girls, an amount doubled by a matching donation from Melinda French Gates — that brimmed with joy and girlhood despite the oppressive 90 degree-plus heat of a weeks-long Southern California heat wave that climaxed over the weekend. It was a celebration of women and girls and the music they make and listen to – music of all kinds, across decades — and what they can do when they come together.

The Lilith Fair comparisons were obvious and inevitable. Rodrigo herself said she called Sarah McLachlan first when she decided to put on the festival and indeed McLachlan joined Rodrigo for two songs: a tremendous cross-generation duet on “Building A Mystery” — hearing Rodrigo sing the lyric about a “beautiful, fucked-up man” made manifest the line that connects those pioneering women from the 90s and Rodrigo — and “Angel” dedicated to Dolly Parton, who McLachlan lauded as one of music’s greatest philanthropists.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O was to be the third special guest, but a personal matter kept her away. So the crowd was treated to Rodrigo singing “Ironic” with Alanis Morissette instead. How’s that for a pinch hitter?

While ensuring she played the favorites (of course there was “drivers license” and of course there was “good 4 u”) Rodrigo and her all-woman band — for the occasion, they donned t-shirts of woman artists through the decades, from Janis Joplin to Selena — were definitely preparing for Rodrigo’s upcoming “Unraveled” tour by highlighting songs from her latest album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.

All day, every act — all of whom performed for free — heaped appreciation on Rodrigo, who spearheaded the festival that was genre- and era-inclusive. There was Eli’s turn-of-the-millennium-inspired pop that would have been a perfect fit during the heyday of MTV’s “Total Request Live.” There was the head-banging, neck-whipping rock of Die Spitz. And there were the foundational bands of the 90s women-in-rock. The Breeders — who opened dates for Rodrigo on her “Guts” tour — cruised expertly through their 90s classics and tossed in a few new ones to boot, Bikini Kill sounded urgent as ever — Kathleen Hanna gave a stemwinder imploring people to learn and grow and change (she no longer yells her signature “Girls to the front” because it could be construed as trans-exclusive) and telling the men and boys in the crowd they have a critical role to play. Shirley Manson and Garbage never sounded so good.

On the main stage, Mitski’s eclectic and often down-tempo songs translated remarkably well to a packed festival. Doechii’s high-energy performance bordered on the theatrical, injecting hip-hop energy into the pop- and rock-heavy day. Chappell Roan jammed her hits into a 40-minute set that demonstrated just why she’s such a high-demand live act: she’s an incredible singer with immense energy and a connection to her audience that’s enviable and seems as if it must have been built over decades despite her breakthrough having come just three years ago.

Beyond the music, the festival celebrated women’s empowerment — or as Nicks called it during her fest-closing speech, Rodrigo’s “women’s rights thing” — with a timeline in the concrete marking the path between the Marigold and Dandelion stages featuring historical milestones and quotes from important women. The nonprofits benefitting from the festival were given to space to share their work. There was an exhibit about women in punk and the 90s riot grrl era. A ‘zine featured stories from the artists and the aforementioned organizations, as well as piece on Irvine’s riot grrl pioneers Emily’s Sassy Lime, who joined Bikini Kill to perform “Rebel Girl.”

There were art installations from woman artists renowned and well-known — Yoko Ono and Jenny Holzer, among them — to the up-and-coming. Sponsors Athleta, Etsy, Depop, Taco Bell and more offered selfie-baiting activations.

Perhaps remarkably for a festival that included 14 acts on two stages, every set began and ended right on time.

Hiccups were in the realm of things a festival doesn’t know until it knows it and are corrected going forward — egress was slow, shuttle lines stretched for hours, shade became a premium, hydration stands were far apart, it became difficult to get from one stage to the other as crowds grew, there were perhaps a few too many bars and a few too few food stands for as many teens and tweens were in attendance — as no doubt the festival production experts at C3 Presents will do, because, Rodrigo announced, Daisy Chain Fields is coming back next year.

And it feels as if she captured the moment and created the spirit for the festival to become a fixture for years.

See more on Daisy Chain Fields in Friday’s Premium Weekly.