Award-winning singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo hosted an all-female lineup for a music festival at Great Irvine Park, California, in late August called the Daisy Chain Fields Festival. 

Rodrigo first announced the festival a few months prior on her Instagram, where she said the festival was something she had dreamt of doing for years.

 Rodrigo’s post read, “I firmly believe that joy, community and music can be the drivers of meaningful change and I’m hopeful this festival will be just that.”

The mission statement ended with an explanation behind the festival’s name: “Daises are wild and beautiful. As a chain, they are strong and unbreakable.” 

The artist promised that 100% of the net proceeds would be donated to nonprofit organizations dedicated to advocating for women and girls alike. 

The festival took inspiration from Lilith Fair, a music festival co-founded by Sarah McLachlan in 1997 and ran until 1999, which also exclusively featured female artists.

 McLachlan had helped create the festival in response to industry norms at the time that dictated multiple women performing in the same show would not sell tickets.

McLachlan tried to restart the festival again in 2010 but was unsuccessful. 

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Rodrigo shared that McLachlan was the first person she approached when planning the one-day event. 

Rodrigo told her during the interview, “Reading about all of the barriers and obstacles that you guys faced was so inspiring, and I definitely would not be here without you.”

McLachlan appeared as one of Rodrigo’s surprise guests at the festival.

 The pair paid tribute to the recently deceased Dolly Parton by singing a duet of McLachlan’s 1997 song “Angel.”

Rodrigo personally curated the lineup of artists, each of whom waived their performance fee, which included Bikini Kill, Chappell Roan, Devon Again, Die Spritz, Doechii, Eli, Garbage, Mitski, Not for Radio, Quiet Light, Rachel Chinouriri, Santigold and The Breeders. 

KATSEYE, who was formerly a member of the festival’s performance lineup, had to unexpectedly drop out due to member Megan Skiendiel’s sprained ankle. 

Despite their inability to perform, the group appeared in a surprise pop-up on stage in order to introduce one of the nonprofit organizations to receive donations from the event, Baby2Baby.

During her performance, Mitski reflected on how she felt being able to perform, “I feel like we should do this every year. We’ll get to say we were at the first ever Daisy Chains.”

Aside from McLachlan, her surprise performers that she sang alongside were Alanis Morissette and Stevie Nicks. 

Performances were held back and forth between two stages, the Marigold Stage and the Dandelion Stage, to accommodate the crowd of 45,000 guests.

Following the performance, Roan posted a “thank you” message on her Instagram, writing, “We need artists like u who use their platform for good and are such a light in the world.” 

Roan also said that performing at the Daisy Chain Fields Festival showed her how much she missed performing after a few months away

The festival included multiple art installations and booths for guests to learn more about each of the organizations’ festival proceeds, which would go towards as well as actively support handcrafted local woman-led businesses behind said installations. 

One installation featured a giant chalkboard labeled “The Art of Behaving Badly: Complaint Department,” where attendees could “air out their grievances” about current-day society. Attendees called for abortion rights, transgender protections and freedom for Palestine. 

The festival alone was able to raise $10 million, which Rodrigo announced was matched by one of her surprise guests, philanthropist Melinda French Gates. She said during the announcement, “What Daisy Chain Fields sets in motion will last far beyond a single night by opening up opportunities for women and girls around the world and showing a new generation how much their voices matter.”

The $20 million raised will be equally split across all ten nonprofit organizations.