Fresh off the release of her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, Olivia Rodrigo announced she is putting together Daisy Chain Fields, a one-day music festival that features an all-female lineup and will take place on August 29 at the Great Park in Irvine, California.
“Truly never felt more excited to share a piece of news with you all,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’ve had a dream of doing this festival for years, and I am so ecstatic it’s finally coming true!!”
You might need to read the lineup twice to believe it. Daisy Chain Fields features a diverse roster of musicians that includes Rodrigo, along with Katseye, Mitski, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Eli, and Rachel Chinouriri, rock legends the Breeders, Bikini Kill, and Garbage, and iconic special guests like Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the legendary Stevie Nicks, and Sarah McLachlan. McLachlan’s inclusion is especially meaningful, given that she founded Lilith Fair, the traveling music festival with an all-female lineup that ran from 1997 to 1999 and was an essential part of the decade’s culture. Much like the original Lilith raised money for national and local charities as it made its way across the United States, so too will Daisy Chain Fields. Rodrigo confirmed that 100 percent of ticket sales directly fund charities, such as Black Mamas Matter Alliance, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, among others.
McLachlan, vexed by those in the misogynistic music industry who were quick to declare that two female performers could not be on the same bill, founded Lilith Fair as an alternative to the male-dominated music festivals. “Lilith Fair was created for many reasons: the joy of sharing live music; the connection of like minds; the desire to create a sense of community that I felt was lacking in our industry,” she wrote in the foreword of Buffer Childerhose’s From Lilith to Lilith Fair (1998). The resulting touring fair kicked off on July 5, 1997, featuring a star-studded lineup across 37 dates and 69 acts, which included performances by the Cardigans, Fiona Apple, and the Indigo Girls. The next year, the fair expanded to include more than 100 acts, adding names like Erykah Badu, Bonnie Raitt, Missy Elliot, and Sinéad O’Connor. The third and final year featured even more performances — more than 120 in total — including the Dixie Chicks (now the Chicks), Christina Aguilera, and the Pretenders. The festival is often credited for boosting the careers of now-household names, such as Nelly Furtado, who told Vanity Fair that Lilith represented “one of the first ‘safe spaces’” in entertainment.
An attempted revival of the festival in 2010 proved unsuccessful. In a 2017 interview with Billboard, McLachlan reflected on it, citing how “it was a colossal failure, because the intentions were not as pure,” but suggesting that the festival’s original mission could succeed in someone else’s hands: “If it were to succeed today, it would have to be someone new to carry the torch, a new artist … and it doesn’t have to be called Lilith. It can be someone else.” Rodrigo is here to pick up the torch.
“I feel really connected to the young girls that come to my concerts, and the fact that I get to be in the fabric of their lives is a real, true honor that I don’t take lightly,” Rodrigo told Pitchfork. “I just feel like we need something really positive to do and see, and young girls need awesome role models who are supporting other women and who are engaging in something that’s really joyful and musical and community-oriented.”
