When Olivia Rodrigo brings the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival to Irvine’s Great Park on Saturday, Aug. 29, the women taking the stage won’t be the only ones the Grammy-winning singer hopes to amplify.
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The sold-out, single-day festival, expected to draw more than 45,000 attendees, features an all-women lineup that includes Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski, Garbage, Bikini Kill, The Breeders and Santigold. But beyond the music, Daisy Chain Fields is also partnering with 10 nonprofit organizations whose work supports and advocates for women and girls.
“Daisy Chain Fields is a music festival founded on the belief that joy, community, and creativity can inspire meaningful change,” Rodrigo wrote in the festival’s mission statement. “It affirms that music and collective experience can serve as enduring drivers of progress and social change.”
Net proceeds from the festival will benefit organizations spanning reproductive and maternal health, economic empowerment, legal advocacy and other issues affecting women and girls. The nonprofit partners include Baby2Baby, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Center for Reproductive Rights, FreeFrom, Jhpiego, Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Institute for Reproductive Health, National Women’s Law Center and Planned Parenthood.
Those organizations will also have an opportunity to connect directly with attendees through the festival’s Philanthropy Village.
Things to know before you go to Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, along with Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties, will operate an I’m For Planned Parenthood booth, where attendees can meet representatives, learn about services provided by its health centers and find ways to get involved.
For Caren Spruch, national director of arts and entertainment for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, bringing that work into a music festival also offers a way to connect with young audiences through the artists and cultural spaces they already engage with.
“At Planned Parenthood, we know firsthand that artists play a key role in helping educate and mobilize young people,” Spruch said. “We collaborate with musicians and film and TV creatives who use their platforms to talk about the importance of sexual and reproductive health care and the key role that young people especially can play in bringing about meaningful change.”
Rodrigo’s relationship with the organization predates Daisy Chain Fields. The singer has publicly supported reproductive rights and used her platform to raise awareness and funds for organizations supporting women and girls.
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“We are so grateful for Olivia’s deep engagement and passion for issues like the fight for abortion rights,” Spruch said. “Her public support helps us reach an even broader and more diverse audience and in very appealing ways.”
Spruch added that artists can play an important role in introducing younger audiences to advocacy.
“It is really key for artists to use their voice and platform to engage young people and encourage other artists to do the same,” she said. “Many musicians have used their art as a tool of organizing and resistance.”
Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields is offering tickets through volunteer initiative
That connection between music and action is woven into the larger vision for Daisy Chain Fields. According to the festival’s mission statement, its nonprofit partnerships and on-site resources are intended to provide opportunities for education, dialogue and engagement around issues affecting women and girls.
And when the final performance is over, Spruch hopes festivalgoers carry some of that spirit with them.
“Our hope is that people experience the collective joy of organizing, of being in solidarity, and experience the power and hope that music holds,” Spruch said. “We also hope that everyone translates that energy from the day into action, and find ways to remain engaged with and support some of the incredible organizations that Daisy Chain Fields is bringing together.”
It’s a sentiment that echoes Rodrigo’s larger vision for the festival. “Daisies are wild and beautiful,” Rodrigo wrote in the festival’s mission statement. “As a chain, they are strong and unbreakable.”
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