Olivia Rodrigo’s festival Daisy Chain Fields arrives at Irvine, California this weekend. It features an all-female line-up and an exceeedingly strong one at that – artists include Chappell Roan, Stevie Nicks, The Breeders, Garbage, Doechii, Mitski, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Santigold.
Artists putting on their own one-day events isn’t anything new, of course, but it seems that Rodrigo was deeply involved in formulating the bill. According to Shirley Manson, who has talked about the festival in a Guardian feature, she called up every act personally, one by one.
“I told her it was very unusual for an agent not to be doing that.” the Garbage singer said. Rodrigo is, of course, very open about her influences, and Manson’s band are just one of the many older acts that she has gushed about. “Unlike many artists, she doesn’t say she’s inventing the wheel; she knows she’s just a spoke within it,” said Manson.
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Another interesting facet is that no act will overlap with another and every artist on the poster is the same font size. “It creates a necessary and refreshing culture of community, setting up women’s art to be received and valued in a less competitive and capitalist environment,” suggests Eli, the 25 year old singer who is one of the younger artists on the bill.
Rodrigo’s model for Daisy Chain Fields was the Lilith Fair, a touring all-female fest that ran for several years in the late 1990s. Like its predecessor, net profits from the fest will go to charity, in this case non-profit organisations dedicated to ‘advancing and advocating for women and girls’. Indeed when she first had the idea for the event, Rodrigo called Lilith’s founder Sarah McLachlan for advice and the Canadian singer-songwriter is set to perform in Irvine on Sunday.
Lilith was partly set up to counter all-male concert line-ups back in the 1990s. And whilst in some areas there has been progress since then – female festival headliners are certainly more common now – in other ways things have gone backwards.
Back then Garbage turned down a chance to play at Lilith Fair. “I might have been naive, but it felt like there was more progress for women then,” Manson said. “And here we are in 2026, as women’s rights are regressing all over the world. We’re at a crisis point.”
Daisy Chain Fields takes place at Great Park, Irvine on Sunday 29 August.
