Photos and review by Nicole Sepulveda
@__nik__pics

Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields was the first — of hopefully many — reimagined festivals inspired by Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair, this time supporting 10 nonprofit organizations focused on women and girls.

The festival raised $10 million, which was then matched by philanthropist Melinda French Gates with another $10 million. The $20 million total will be split among 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, and Planned Parenthood.

Inside the festival was a dedicated space where all 10 organizations had booths with different activities to help festivalgoers learn more about their missions. As a bonus, you could collect a button at each station to fill a designated spot on a collectible Daisy Chain Fields tote bag.

Throughout the festival grounds there were also different activities and opportunities to collect limited merch from vendors and help “build” some of the art installations. At the entrance was Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, there was a huge LEGO art piece where you built a small section and staff hammered it onto the larger board, and Ariel Zana’s interactive mirror installation, I Always Knew the Words, asked questions like, “Who do you wish was here with you now?”

I didn’t get to experience the full abundance the festival had to offer since I was mainly focused on trying to catch every act, which was doable since the schedule was laid out with no overlapping sets. I was SO excited at the chance to actually see all of the amazing artists Olivia hand-picked for the lineup.

I also learned that she personally called each band to ask if they would participate, which made it feel like she built this festival not only to give back to some of her favorite charities, but to basically bring her own playlist to life — which also happens to be my favorite playlist. I’ve always been a HUGE fan of Garbage, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Breeders, and more recently Not for Radio, Chappell Roan and Bikini Kill, so it was really exciting to learn how many of these artists are either friends of Olivia or inspirations behind her own musical journey.

Of course I wanted merch, so I actually went to the festival grounds the day before to pick up my wristband and saw they had a pop-up merch booth open until around 9 p.m. It was also available during the day of the festival before doors. I believe most of everything sold out pretty quickly, as expected.

When the main entrance opened at 10:30 a.m., most of the crowd went RUNNING toward the Dandelion Stage to claim their spots for Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan at the end of the night. I only assumed that was their plan because a few yelled “CHAPPELL!” and/or “OLIVIA!” as they sped past the media already inside the gates. Lol!

A few notes on the overall festival experience: everyone was warned that it was going to be hot, but there were still a number of guests heading to the medical tents with heat-related illnesses. There were also reports that food and drink mixers were spoiling because of the heat, causing some guests to get sick. By dinner, many of the food trucks were out of food altogether.

The hydration stations were wonderful, but there weren’t any near the Marigold Stage. Thankfully, security was passing out cold bottles of water to people who needed them in the audience. I always grabbed two whenever I had to walk back toward the Dandelion Stage because the main water station in the middle of the grounds always had a LOOOOOOONG line that I just didn’t have time to wait in.

Honestly, the festival was mainly full of lines. Everywhere.

There was a LOT to experience and collect at Daisy Chain Fields, but the heat added extra stress with the lack of shade and limited water options. Most of what I heard from other attendees was that the music and interactive parts of the festival were amazing, but the amenities weren’t quite prepared to handle that many people, especially in the middle of a Southern California heat wave.

I left the festival one song early and was lucky enough to be within walking distance of my hotel, but many concertgoers ended up sitting in the parking lot for hours because of poor traffic management.

Great Park in Irvine, the location of Daisy Chain Fields, normally hosts much smaller crowds, so expanding the grounds to accommodate roughly 45,000 people for Olivia Rodrigo’s historic first festival was bound to come with a few hiccups along the way.

Good and bad, I would still do it again.

With my goal of photographing every artist, I didn’t get to stick around and watch full performances because the two stages were about a 10–15 minute walk apart. The Dandelion Stage mainly hosted the bigger modern pop and Top 40 sounds, while the Marigold Stage held the more alternative mix of musicians along with some of my vintage favorites. I totally would’ve hung out there all day if I wasn’t photographing all the bands.

Since I only experienced the first three songs of almost every act, I wanted to give each artist a little shout-out based on what I saw, along with what I heard from other festival attendees and have seen shared across social media.

Quiet Light

Quiet Light started the day off on a dreamy note. Described as electronic folk music, they brought an almost ethereal stage presence and were a nice, mellow way to ease into what would become a very long and very loud day.

ELI

ELI brought a fun mix of pop, R&B and Y2K-inspired sounds to one of the early sets of the afternoon. She had a ton of personality onstage and definitely didn’t perform like someone stuck with an early festival slot.

Rachel Chinouriri

Rachel Chinouriri somehow managed to stay upbeat and energetic through the afternoon heat, bringing her bright indie-pop sound to the field. Her set was easy, fun and a great introduction for anyone who hadn’t caught her live before.

KATSEYE / Devon Again

KATSEYE unfortunately had to cancel their scheduled performance after Megan Skiendiel injured her ankle, but members of the group still made an appearance at the festival to introduce Devon Again, who stepped in at the last minute.

That couldn’t have been the easiest position to be in, but Devon handled it like it had always been her spot, bringing a mix of alt-pop, big vocals and a little bit of country influence along with her. Devon Again is also on tour with Olivia as an opener, so hopefully I can catch Devon again. (Sorry, had to.)

Die Spitz

Die Spitz was the first act of the day to really bring some rock to the festival. The Austin punk band instigated mosh pits, crowd interaction and exactly the kind of messy, loud energy you want from an afternoon punk set.

Though they started with some technical issues, they quickly got things moving once the opening song kicked in.

Santigold

Santigold turned her set into one big dance party, complete with dancers, plenty of movement and eventually fans joining her onstage. Even in the middle of the afternoon heat, it was hard not to get pulled into it.

Bikini Kill

Seeing Bikini Kill on this lineup made my heart full. Kathleen Hanna and the band still have all of that raw punk energy, and hearing the familiar call for the girls to come to the front felt especially fitting at a festival built around women in music.

Mitski

Mitski packed a lot into her 40-minute Dandelion Stage set, mixing favorites like “Nobody,” “First Love/Late Spring,” “My Love Mine All Mine” and “Washing Machine Heart” with newer material.

Her signature theatrical style was also a big part of the performance, incorporating Butoh-inspired movement against visuals from 1940s melodramas.

The Breeders

The Breeders brought some much-needed ’90s alternative rock into the mix, sounding as fuzzy and effortlessly cool as ever. They even dropped “Cannonball” right into the middle of the set instead of saving the obvious crowd favorite for the end.

Looking out into the audience before I left, it was pretty cool seeing so many young girls dancing, and some even singing along. Not sure they realize just how cool they actually are for that.

Doechii

I almost missed Doechii because I was hesitant to make another trek back to the Dandelion Stage in the middle of the heat, but my fellow photographer friends convinced me I would regret skipping it.

So I hydrated up and made the walk, and I am SOOOOOO happy I did.

Doechii was easily one of the biggest visual performances of the day, walking out covered head-to-toe in pink body paint with dancers beside her. Between the choreography, rapping and pure stage presence, there was a LOT happening — in the best possible way.

Garbage

Garbage was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to shoot this festival in the first place, and they never disappoint.

With Shirley Manson as commanding and outspoken as ever, she has long been a voice for women’s rights and against the evils of the world, so Garbage fit naturally into Olivia Rodrigo’s charity festival. Even when they had to restart a song because of a technical issue, Shirley somehow turned the mistake into part of the show.

In an interview I heard with Shirley, she said she had never met Olivia before and was really impressed by the courage it took for Olivia to personally call and ask if Garbage would participate in Daisy Chain Fields — for free.

If I could’ve stayed for their whole set I absolutely would have, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to catch the next act.

Chappell Roan

At long last, I FINALLY got to see Chappell Roan live.

She came out in a completely new purple retro-futuristic look inspired by the flight attendants from The Fifth Element and announced she was basically giving us “only the hits,” which nobody was going to complain about.

Her set became one giant singalong and another reminder of just how quickly her live shows have grown into full festival-headliner territory.

My favorite moment was standing front of house, turning around and seeing a PACKED audience of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people singing and dancing to “HOT TO GO!” in perfect unison.

Second to that was walking out of the pit through the crowd, interacting with everyone and singing “Champagne Supernova” as I made my way toward yet another hydration station.

Not for Radio

Another favorite — and YAY for so many artists from my personal playlist being back-to-back — María Zardoya’s Not for Radio project waited until twilight to slow everything down and make it feel like you were about to enter a dream.

With the forest-like stage setting and ethereal lighting, the whole thing fit the music perfectly. The live band also gave the songs a little more weight and distortion than the recordings, which worked really well in the festival setting.

I’m sad I missed María walking out into the crowd, but I had to make my way through the majority of the 45,000 attendees to get back to the pit in time for the final act.

Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo walked out onstage and seemed to really take in the fact that all of her hard work creating Daisy Chain Fields had finally come to life.

She thanked every artist who donated their talent and their voices to the festival, then announced that Melinda French Gates had matched the money raised, bringing the grand total to $20 million donated.

Once Olivia jumped into her own set, she pulled from all three of her albums, but it was the guest appearances that really made the night feel special. It became less about one headlining performance and more like a celebration of the different generations of women who helped shape the music she loves.

Having Sarah McLachlan appear felt especially fitting considering Daisy Chain Fields was inspired in part by what Lilith Fair created decades ago. She joined Olivia for “Building a Mystery” and “Angel,” the latter dedicated to Dolly Parton, giving the night one of its sweetest throwback moments.

Alanis Morissette stepped in as a surprise guest after Karen O had to back out because of a family emergency and joined Olivia for “Ironic,” which naturally turned into a massive crowd singalong.

Although I’m not sure “singalong” is really the correct word when it comes to Alanis. I personally tend to SCREAM every Alanis lyric. It’s more fun that way.

And then there was Stevie Nicks.

She joined Olivia Rodrigo for the final song of the night, “Landslide,” which was about as perfect of an ending as you could ask for at a festival centered around generations of women in music.