When singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo announced the brand-new Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival in June, she didn’t just announce its musical lineup. She also shared the spotlight with 10 non-profit partners working on issues of importance to women and girls.
On Friday, the day before Daisy Chain Fields debuts at the Great Park in Irvine, she did even more than that. With representatives of the 10 groups seated alongside her at a press event in Santa Monica, Rodrigo announced that the festival was donating $10 million to the 10 non-profits.
“I am so excited for tomorrow,” Rodrigo said with a big smile as the room burst into applause at the news. “So I’ll see you guys there!”
Earlier, Rodrigo talked about the reasons behind her decision to create Daisy Chain Fields, which in addition to its lineup of all-female acts includes space for all the non-profits, too.
“Daisy Chain Fields is an annual music festival inspired by the groundbreaking Lilith Fair founded by Sarah McLachlan,” Rodrigo said as the event began. “She was actually the first person I called when I started thinking about doing this.
“At the time of Lilith Fair, women were told they couldn’t lead a festival,” she continued. “That no one would come. That they couldn’t get sponsors. And those women proved everyone wrong. Thanks to those women, we are obviously in a very different situation now.
“Today, so many of the top artists who are headlining festivals and selling out arenas are women, and I’m so lucky to call many of them my friends. And I was so overwhelmed by their enthusiasm for the idea.”
The lineup, which she quickly ticked off, includes Bikini Kill, Chappell Roan, the Breeders, and special guests such as McLachlan, Stevie Nicks and Sarah McLachlan, who’ll presumably join Rodrigo during her headlining set.
“These women are already doing incredible things, and many of them are on major tours of their own,” she said. “And they all agreed to come together for one day with 100% of the net proceeds going to non-profit organizations dedicated to advocating for and supporting women and girls.
“Words cannot describe how grateful I am for their time and their passion about this festival.”
Much of the event was filled with words of gratitude and passion from representatives of the 10 groups, each of whom was introduced one after another by Rodrigo.
“Daisy Chain Fields is important to us because it brings together a young and engaged audience around issues that will shape their lives and the world that they will inherit,” said Allyson Bear, CEO and president of Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University-based organization that works on global health issues for women and families.
“Access to healthcare can determine whether a young woman can stay in school, whether a mother is there to raise her child, whether a family can live healthy, and whether people have the ability to make choices about their future,” she said.
“Olivia understood something that sometimes we forget in the day-to-day work of our movement,” said Christian LoBue, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. “Joy is not what you get after the win. Joy is what makes the work sustainable long enough to get there.
“Olivia has built a festival on this incredible idea and invited each of us into it,” she continued. “And I know that the joy this weekend brings will carry us past this festival and into the future, into a reality that pushes beyond the status quo, and builds true reproductive freedom without limits.”
Melissa Walls, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, celebrated the feeling of community already forged in the run-up to the festival debut.
“Daisy Chain Fields provides us with such welcomed visibility,” she said. “Olivia, you have given us this opportunity to showcase how we, as Indigenous mothers, daughters, leaders, healers, artists and educators, are creating and implementing programs to catalyze and propel collective well-being.
“This festival shines a spotlight on shared goals, embracing joy,” Walls said, turning to look at Rodrigo, who sat next to her. “You feeling joy? I’m feeling it.”
Caren Spruch, Planned Parenthood’s national director for arts & entertainment engagement, echoed Walls sentiments.
“Having Olivia and the festival community means absolutely everything,” she said. “It means more people will learn that they can go to Planned Parenthood health centers across the country for birth control, STI testing and treatment, sex education, abortion where legal, cancer screenings, wellness exams, and so much more.
“It means more people will see sexual and reproductive health care for what it is, an essential and normal part of life – no judgment, no shame, no apologies,” Spruch said.
Earlier, Rodrigo talked about how both the musicians and the non-profit advocates had inspired her as the festival planning got underway.
“They’ve taught me a lot about how we are all stronger when we come together and support one another,” she said. “That’s actually why I fell in love with the name Daisy Chain. It served as a reminder of how individual parts can come together to create something strong and unbreakable.
“It’s easy to be discouraged by all of the sadness and regression of women’s rights in our world today,” Rodrigo said. “But it’s artists like the ones playing tomorrow and activists like the ones sitting next to me today that give me so much hope.
“I hope Daisy Chain can be a celebration of the love and determination that these women are putting into making this world a better place.”