LOUD WOMEN goes to Daisy Chain Fields: live review from Olivia Rodrigo’s feminist mega-fest

Few things will give a person goosebumps in the hot California sun, but women and girls coming together in the name of music, feminism and community did it on Saturday at the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival in Irvine, California.

The festival, created and hosted by Olivia Rodrigo, packed 14 billed performances onto two stages for a women-led lineup that crossed genre boundaries from pop and rock to punk, rap and everything in between. Rodrigo’s headline set included songs from her recent album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, alongside appearances from special guests including Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan, legendary Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks and surprise guest Alanis Morissette. Billed guest Karen O was unable to make the festival due to a family emergency.

The event, which sold out online in less than 30 minutes, brought together 45,000 attendees and raised $20 million for ten nonprofit organisations dedicated to advancing and advocating for women and girls. Net proceeds from festival tickets raised $10 million, with a matching donation from philanthropist Melinda French Gates bringing the total to $20 million.

The nonprofit recipients were:

• Baby2Baby
• Black Mamas Matter Alliance
• Center for Reproductive Rights
• FreeFrom
• Jhpiego
• Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health
• National Domestic Workers Alliance
• National Institute for Reproductive Health
• National Women’s Law Center
• Planned Parenthood

Festival-goers enjoyed a full day of music with no overlapping set times across two stages: the Marigold Stage, which primarily featured rock and alternative acts, and the Dandelion Stage, where Rodrigo performed and which largely featured pop and rap artists.

Rodrigo’s set featured songs including ‘drop dead’, ‘good 4 u’, ‘drivers license’ and ‘the cure’, as she declared: “This is the best day of my f*cking life!” She also gave the live debut of ‘serena joy’, her feminist festival anthem released five days earlier.

Rodrigo performed Sarah McLachlan’s tearjerker ‘Angel’ with McLachlan, with the pair dedicating the song to the late Dolly Parton. Alanis Morissette then joined Rodrigo for a duet of the ’90s hit ‘Ironic’, as the multigenerational crowd sang along to every word.

To close out the festival, Stevie Nicks took the stage to deafening cheers as she and Rodrigo performed a beautiful rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’. After Rodrigo thanked fans for their support, Nicks had to chime in: “I’m awestruck that she could do all of this, and she’s done it with this grace and crazy energy that she has … I told her, ‘Don’t ever give that up and don’t ever let anybody tell you that you don’t run around this stage.’”

Supporting acts at the festival included Bikini Kill, Chappell Roan, Devon Again, Die Spitz, Doechii, Eli, Garbage, Mitski, Not For Radio, Quiet Light, Rachel Chinouriri, Santigold and The Breeders. Devon Again stepped in just two days before the festival after KATSEYE withdrew when member Megan Skiendiel sprained her ankle during tour rehearsals.

Young girls, perched on their mothers’ shoulders, danced the choreography to Chappell Roan’s ‘HOT TO GO!’ at the Dandelion Stage with the same enthusiasm as those in the mosh pits, which broke out early in Die Spitz’s set on the Marigold Stage.

Among the rock and alternative acts on the Marigold Stage were Garbage, whose frontwoman Shirley Manson descended from the stage and interacted with fans in the pit, at one point singing directly to a little girl who beamed up at her.

The Breeders frontwoman Kim Deal made a powerful statement by sporting a vintage Shirley Chisholm campaign T-shirt, featuring the historic politician’s iconic slogan: “Unbought and Unbossed.”

From the Dandelion Stage, Mitski’s angelic voice during ‘My Love Mine All Mine’ carried through the trees, while Doechii’s performance filled the entire park with energy and power as she worked Beyoncé’s ‘Run the World (Girls)’ into her set. As she asked the crowd, “Who run the world?”, the answer came back in an enthusiastic roar: “GIRLS!”

Overall, the day was filled with an almost ethereal feminine energy that was hard to put into words. Joyful pink and yellow flowers adorned trees and bushes. Daisy Lane, the main walkway through the festival grounds, was decorated with colourful quotes from powerful women including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Maya Angelou, alongside facts about women’s achievements throughout history.

Festival-goers could also interact with a series of art installations, including Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, where attendees wrote down something they hoped for and hung the tag from the tree.

Later, Rodrigo shared on Instagram that she returned to the tree after the park was empty and read the wishes. By and large, almost every tag said the same thing: “Everyone hoped for the world to be more peaceful, they all hoped that the people they loved were happy, they all hoped to make a difference.”

As a charity festival overwhelmingly attended by women and girls, differences have certainly already been made: in the lives of the artists who performed, the festival-goers who laughed and cried, and the organisations receiving funds to provide care, supplies, advocacy and support.

As Olivia Rodrigo put it in the festival’s mission statement:

“Daisies are wild and beautiful. As a chain, they are strong and unbreakable.”

Daisy Chain Fields proved to be a historic, groundbreaking festival in its first year, and the possibilities for its future abound.

Count us in for next year.