Olivia Rodrigo festival raises $20m for women’s charities
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Olivia Rodrigo's inaugural all-women Daisy Chain Fields festival, held on 29 August at Great Park in Irvine, California, raised $10 million for women's charities including the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood, a sum later doubled to $20 million by philanthropist Melinda French Gates. The event was directly inspired by Sarah McLachlan's 1990s Lilith Fair, and McLachlan revealed she was the first person Rodrigo called when planning it, offering immediate encouragement and support; the pair later gave a joint interview to Rolling Stone reflecting on the festival and the sexism both sought to counter in the music industry.
The festival drew 45,000 fans and featured Chappell Roan, Doechii, Bikini Kill, Garbage, the Breeders and Mitski, with Rodrigo headlining and performing songs from her new album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. She was joined on stage by Alanis Morissette, Stevie Nicks and McLachlan herself, calling the night "the best day of my fuckin' life." Rodrigo, McLachlan, Roan and Doechii subsequently featured on a Rolling Stone digital cover marking the event, which Rodrigo said she hoped would give young women and girls a space to connect and process emotion, much as music had done for her growing up.
- Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields festival raised $20m for women's charities
- 45,000 fans attended; Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski and others performed
- Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair inspired the event; she gave early blessing
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Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields is a newly created music festival built entirely around women performers, staged for the first time at Great Park in Irvine, California. It is being widely compared to Lilith Fair, the touring all-female festival that Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan ran in the late 1990s, since large-scale festivals dedicated solely to women artists have been rare since then. McLachlan gave the new event her backing and took part in it directly.
Rodrigo, a pop singer known for songs such as "drivers license" and "good 4 u", is the driving force behind the festival and its headline act. She has said she wanted to set up something like this for some time and sought McLachlan's advice before going ahead, bringing together performers from different genres and generations for the event.
Beyond the music, the festival is also tied to fundraising for women's causes, with donations going to organisations that work on reproductive rights and healthcare access. This combination of a women-led lineup and a charitable purpose is central to why the event is being discussed as more than just a one-off concert.
Full account
Olivia Rodrigo has raised $20m (roughly £16m) for charities supporting women and girls through Daisy Chain Fields, a new all-female music festival she launched on 29 August at Great Park in Irvine, California. The event generated $10m in donations on the day, a sum that was then doubled by philanthropist Melinda French Gates, with proceeds earmarked for organisations including the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood.
The festival ran for around 11 hours and featured an all-women and female-led bill spanning genres and generations, among them Chappell Roan, Doechii, Bikini Kill, Garbage, the Breeders and Mitski. Rodrigo, who conceived and curated the event, closed the day with a headline set drawing on material from her recent album, performing songs from it alongside surprise appearances by three veteran singer-songwriters: Alanis Morissette, who joined her for 'Ironic', Stevie Nicks for 'Landslide', and Sarah McLachlan. Estimates of the crowd size put attendance at around 45,000.
The festival's roots lie in Lilith Fair, the touring all-women showcase Sarah McLachlan founded in the late 1990s after being told by industry figures that female artists could not share a bill, or even consecutive radio airplay slots. For years McLachlan resisted calls to revive it, saying any successor should be led by a younger artist with a fresh vision. According to accounts of the pair's conversations, Rodrigo rang McLachlan directly while planning the festival to seek her blessing, a call she has described as nerve-racking, and McLachlan says she responded with immediate enthusiasm at seeing the idea carried forward by a new generation.
Coverage of the festival diverged in focus. Rolling Stone framed the story around the fundraising total, the personal history between Rodrigo and McLachlan, and quotes from a joint interview accompanying the outlet's cover feature, alongside colour from Rodrigo's emotional, celebratory set. Billboard's coverage, delivered largely through a podcast discussion involving a critic who attended, concentrated instead on the on-the-ground festival experience, weighing how the crowd and atmosphere differed from a typical gig, how older acts landed with younger fans, and whether the event should expand to two days in future years; notably, it made no mention of the money raised. Neither account suggested friction, but between them they illustrate the split between the festival's charitable and symbolic significance and its reception purely as a live event.
Where outlets differ
Rolling Stone centres its report on the $20m raised for women's and girls' charities and the personal backstory linking Rodrigo to Sarah McLachlan and Lilith Fair, including direct quotes from a joint interview; Billboard's coverage, presented as a podcast recap, omits the fundraising figure entirely and instead focuses on the live festival experience, crowd demographics and questions about the event's future format.
Sources give slightly different framings of the lineup and length: Rolling Stone lists specific acts and a 45,000-strong crowd, while Billboard describes an 11-hour running time and discusses audience reception without specifying attendance numbers.
Tone differs: Rolling Stone's account is celebratory and narrative-driven, quoting Rodrigo calling it the best day of her life, whereas Billboard's is more analytical and critical, questioning aspects such as whether tribute moments (e.g. to Dolly Parton) met expectations.
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Originally published by Rolling Stone as “How Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Festival Made History”.