Olivia Rodrigo's first Daisy Chain Fields festival finished with $20 million raised for organizations working on behalf of women and girls. The single-day event ran at Great Park Live in Irvine, California on August 29, and the Los Angeles Times put the crowd at about 45,000.
Rodrigo announced the first $10 million at a press conference the day before, money that came from ticket sales, waived artist fees and donations. Then, just before her headline set, the philanthropist Melinda French Gates walked onstage and said she would match it through her own organization, doubling the total.
"What Daisy Chain Fields sets in motion will last far beyond a single night," Gates said in a statement. Rodrigo, for her part, thanked every person who bought a ticket, every artist who waived a fee and every sponsor who signed on to a brand new festival.
The money is being divided among 10 groups: Baby2Baby, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, the Center for Reproductive Rights, FreeFrom, Jhpiego, the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Institute for Reproductive Health, the National Women's Law Center and Planned Parenthood.
The bill was all women, spread across two stages with no overlapping sets, and included Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski, Bikini Kill, Garbage, The Breeders, Santigold, Rachel Chinouriri and Die Spitz. KATSEYE dropped out days earlier after a member sprained an ankle in rehearsals. A philanthropy village on site carried information from the partner organizations alongside community art projects.
Sarah McLachlan, whose Lilith Fair of the late 1990s gave Rodrigo the template, sang "Building a Mystery" and "Angel" with her, dedicating the second to Dolly Parton, who died earlier that week. Alanis Morissette stepped in for Karen O, who withdrew for a family emergency, on "Ironic." Stevie Nicks closed the night with Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," then stayed to talk about Rodrigo: "She reminds me of me, when I was her age a hundred years ago."
Rodrigo's own 80-minute set leaned on You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love and reached back to Sour and Guts, and included the just-released Serena Joy. She told the crowd she would see them next year. The festival, which had already set out stage times so no two sets clashed, sits on the festival tracker with the rest of the pop calendar, and Parton's death shadowed the weekend.
The facts
- Daisy Chain Fields raised $20 million for 10 nonprofits supporting women and girls
- Melinda French Gates matched the festival's $10 million total onstage
- The festival was held at Great Park Live in Irvine, California on August 29
- The Los Angeles Times put the crowd at about 45,000
- Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette and Stevie Nicks joined the headline set
- Angel was dedicated to Dolly Parton, who died that week
- Every artist on the bill waived their performance fee
- Rodrigo told the crowd the festival would return next year
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