Irvine officials already “in discussions” for Daisy Chain Fields to return next year

Daisy Chain Fields, a festival launched for and by women, wrapped up Saturday night with $20 million announced in fundraising and Olivia Rodrigo saying “See you next year” to the crowd of tens of thousands.

Irvine city officials said Monday that the likelihood is “pretty high” for a round two in 2027 at the Great Park after the seeming success of the one-day festival that sold 45,000 tickets within just minutes of the pre-sale going live.

“We are in discussions with them for next year and we’ve offered them several dates to consider,” said Melissa Haley, Irvine’s director of communications and engagement.

Grammy-winning artist Rodrigo announced in June that she was launching the female-fronted festival at the Irvine Great Park featuring a star-studded lineup including Bikini Kill, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Garbage, Mitski and more, with the proceeds going toward uplifting women and girls.

Shortly after the festival, Rodrigo took to Instagram, saying in a post, “Seeing Daisy Chain come to fruition yesterday was the greatest joy of my career.

“Riot grrrl mosh pits. Friendship bracelets being made on the grass. Young girls on their dads shoulders. I am still in a bit of disbelief that it happened and I still feel incapable of properly expressing the gratitude that I feel for every person who believed in this vision and fought so hard to make it a reality.” Rodrigo said, ending the heartfelt message with “until next yearrrrr.”

“I don’t want to speak on (Rodrigo’s) behalf or anything like that,” Haley said Monday of the artist and the festival’s producers. “We worked really well together. It appears that she really likes the venue and enjoyed the day.”

Haley also said the city already had ideas for addressing some of the issues that did arise, such as traffic.

“We have times set up so the likelihood of them returning is pretty high,” Haley said. “Irvine could serve as an HQ for Daisy Chain.”

City leaders have been promoting the 1,300-acre Great Park as a venue that can host big events. It has an outdoor amphitheater, soccer and baseball stadiums used by minor professional leagues and ball fields and multiple museums and outdoor spaces still under development.

“This is our first time doing this and we recognize there’s always room for improvement. And we’re here to do it,” Haley said. “We’re going to debrief, we’re gonna talk through all the things, and we’re gonna learn how to be better so we can continue making sure Great Park is what we’ve positioned it to be, something that can be used regionally and, my goodness, globally by people.”

The festival staying in town would mean a lot for Irvine; this year’s agreement netted the city more than $500,000, including shares of ticket prices, parking and rental fees. (The festival also paid for city services used.)

City officials are having an official economic report done, but it seems local businesses and hotels would have benefited from thousands of festival-goers staying in the area.

“We’ve been really trying to flip this script that there’s nothing at the Great Park,” Haley said. “We’ve been working toward it for so long and now we’re finally doing it.”

“This was a huge success, you know, we were dealing with normal festival hurdles, but, you know, for next year, we’ll be prepared,” Haley said.

The festival landed during a hot spell in Orange County, with temperatures in the 90s during much of the day. Hydration stations were added — popular spots throughout the event — and shade was created in some places, but it was a struggle for many to stay cool. The concession stands at the festival certainly felt the impact of a sold-out crowd of approximately 45,000 attendees. Several food vendors faced long lines, with some customers waiting an hour to order and another hour to pick up their food.

Traffic into the Great Park seemed efficient, Haley said, but heading out, there’s work to be done, she added. Some reported hour-plus waits exiting the area.

The city is eyeing opening up Marine Way to traffic for that potential second festival, Haley said.

“Certainly when 45,000 people are trying to leave any venue, whether it’s SoFi Stadium, the Greek, there is a wait time to be expected, right?” Haley said, adding that part of the challenge was getting festival-goers acquainted with the Great Park’s geography for getting in and out.

“But also because more folks wanted to ride-share in than shuttle — that was a big challenge in the cars wanting to come in to ride-share. And then I know that there were a lot of other parent pickups that, you know, were challenged,” Haley said. “So it created a little bit more congestion than we were hoping for because of that.”

Festivalgoers looking for a rideshare were funneled to the park’s Lot 4 for pickup. Those who weren’t fortunate enough to catch a rideshare because of poor cell service or road closures at the pickup location were left to walk a few miles until they found proper cell service to request a ride.

A little more than 100 Irvine Police Department officers were working the festival and helping to direct traffic.

Attendees who purchased on-site parking posted on social media about stalled traffic while trying to exit the event. One user posted a video saying that they had been waiting in line for two hours, with no movement.

Teresa Lem, Fullerton, was also stuck in one of the on-site parking lots but took matters into her own hands at one point and started directing cars to help alleviate the traffic.

In a video she posted on social media, Lem can be seen dancing a few hours earlier, rating the festival a 10/10, followed by a scene comparing the traffic situation and rating it 0/10.

She said that while waiting, she saw a driver rear-end another driver and that people just seemed generally frustrated. She and her group got to the parking lot at 10:15 p.m. after walking out with the crowd but, despite her traffic-control efforts, didn’t get onto the freeway until 12:30 a.m.

“We can laugh about it, but it was definitely probably one for the books for how long it took to escape,” Lem said.

“I hope that maybe because it was the first one, next year they have more support in general to help run the festival, especially with parking,” Lem said. “The biggest concerns for me were the heat and the parking situation. I think if it was addressed where they said, ‘Hey, we heard people’s concerns,’ I would be more willing to go next year. I know that parking is something handled by the city, so it’d be nice to see some effort from them to improve it if they do want it again at Irvine.”

There were about 3,000 on-site parking spots for attendees and the plan, Haley said, was for the bulk of attendees to get in via shuttles flowing from nearby UC Irvine and OCVibe in Anaheim.

“I think the challenges are just us making sure that public transportation continues to be the No. 1 priority, both in the festival and out of the festival and how we’re making sure we’re not impacting the local residents negatively and making sure that their needs are all being considered in all of this as well,” Haley said.

In preparation for the festival, the city printed some 20,000 Dash Passes, Haley said, which could be picked up ahead of time and let Great Park residents into otherwise closed-off lanes and streets leading into local neighborhoods. 

Festival organizers donated a number of tickets to the city to distribute – some for city staff and toward a lottery for Great Park residents.

“It was so gratifying. We’ve been hearing about the festival for quite some time now, and our staff were working literally around the clock to get everything finalized. And so I was really happy for them, that it turned out so well,” said Councilmember Kathleen Treseder, who attended the festival with her child, after receiving donated tickets.

“I got to see Bikini Kill, The Breeders and Garbage — I just love their music,” Treseder said. “And what I really liked from a woman’s perspective is the lead singer of Bikini Kill and also the lead singer of Garbage; they said a lot of really great, empowering words to the young women in the audience.”

“Just be yourself and stand up for what’s right and stick together. And I felt like that was really powerful.”