Words / Bri Ng Schwartz
Photos / Valerie Terranova
One year ago, The documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery was released on Hulu. The film chronicled the inception and impact of Sarah McLachlan’s short lived 90s female fronted music festival, and featured interviews with several contemporary artists including Gen-Z pop royalty Olivia Rodrigo. While the festival began and ended before she was born, she names Lilith Fair alumni like McLachlan and Cheryl Crow as her north stars. In hindsight, Rodrigo’s presence in the documentary was a teaser of what was to come with her own brainchild, Daisy Chain Fields.
Flash forward to this past weekend in Irvine California’s Great Park. The 100 degree heat didn’t stop 45,000 fans from braving the 12 hour celebration of our favorite artists, non-profit partners, and girlhood at large. The one-of-a-kind event featured a stacked lineup of female fronted spanning generations. With Gen Z favorites like Doechii and Chappell Roan, to rock legends Bikini Kill and Garbage on the bill. Newcomers like Eli and Rachel Chinouriri built on their budding fanbases with their early sets, and Olivia’s closing performance spotlighted infamous artists Alanis Morsette, Stevie Nicks, and Miss Lilith Fair herself, Sarah McLachlan.
Femme-foward music festivals have seen a rise in recent years, with events like All Things Go and Girls Just Wanna Weekend making their mark in the festival circuit. In contrast to the industry that MacLachlin came up in, women now dominate the charts and are the driving force of the market. Tours like Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour and Taylor Swift’s Era’s tour showed record breaking sales and economic impact. Still, even the most powerful of women in the industry have been quiet surrounding national and global injustice.
With Daisy Chain Fields, Rodgrio put her money where her mouth is, using her booming success and wide appeal combined to push forward philanthropic endeavors. Sharing the spotlight with the stacked, star-studded lineup were the 10 nonprofit beneficiaries of the festival’s net proceeds, totalling to $20 million by the end of the night with a matching donation from Melinda French Gates. Organizations including Planned Parenthood, Black Mamma’s Matter Alliance, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and more had a large presence throughout the day. Daisy Chain Reaction Philanthropy Village was a looming presence on the grounds, which served as a resource fair featuring tables from each partner where festivalgoers could learn more about their work.
The day served as a statement of counter culture to the current administration, which continues to defund women’s health organizations, strip LGBTQ+ rights, and even use Rodrigo and her peers as pawns in their agenda by using their music as soundtrack to cheeky pro-ICE videos online. Rodrigo’s evening performance of “serena joy” served as a thesis for the event, named after the villain of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and speaks to the ongoing threat against women in this country. The event struck a brilliant balance between spreading awareness and commemorating female creators across disciplines. With art installations, small businesses in the Etsy Creator Village, and women owned food vendors, the curation behind each element of the festival is what made the day truly unique.
Despite the on-point curation, the event was not without its shortcomings. The record breaking heat was paired with hours-long lines for water, food, merch and brand activations that felt extreme even for the most experienced festival-goer. Many female photographers representing indie magazines were given last minute restrictions on what they were allowed to shoot, excluding them from the photo pit and from shooting sets from the audience. This was a stark reminder that while the festival was a major feat for women in music, there is still a long way to go with industry standards for those behind the scenes.
Still, photographers and content creators on the ground made the most of their access, capturing heartwarming moments of girlhood: singalongs, dancing, thought out and meticulous on-theme wardrobe: lower crowns, babydoll dresses, and frye boots galore. We spotted DIY merch calling back to Olivia Rodgrio hits including white tank tops with “All American Bitch” written in black sharpie and an older man with a shirt that read “Dad Idea Right?”
“It is so exciting to see what everyone is wearing.” shares Rachel, a former Lillith Fair attendee who I met on one of the sprawling merch lines. “Just like at Lillith, women are dressing for themselves, not the male gaze.”
Rachel and her daughter, Phoebe, represented a large demographic of those in attendance: Mothers and their young daughters who took advantage of the all ages element of the festival. The pair who had flown in from Arizona that morning for the festival, marking Phoebe’s first ever concert. We passed time on the line getting to know each other and gush about our love for the festival’s mission and lineup. After spending almost an hour with the pair on the line, I had to give up my spot to run to a photo session with one of the festival artists. Rachel was generous enough to snag me a festival sweatshirt, and we met up once more later in the afternoon for the exchange.
My brief encounter with the pair was another reminder of the community and sisterhood being created in real time on the festival grounds. I witnessed groups of girls no older than five exchanging friendship bracelets in between sets. Groups of friends were sprawled out on blankets playing card games and fanning each other. As the sweltering sun went down, vibes rose, culminating in a day that was more sweet than bitter. As I regrouped with other journalists and photographers on the post-festival journey out of the Great Park, we were in agreement that we witnessed history, despite the kinks. We all hoped to return next year, as Olivia closed her set confirming that the festival will be back in 2027.
Already daydreaming of a new and improved iteration of Daisy Chain Fields, I am reminded of the short lifespan of Lilith Fair. Amongst the public scrutiny and criticism, Sarah McLachlan has gone on record citing burnout as a contributing factor when deciding to put an end to her impactful project. Despite some needed rethinking of capacity and layout, Rodrigo and her team have proven what can be accomplished within the two months of announcing a festival of this scale and pulling it off. A full year of planning and reimagining is sure to bring about a second year of fundraising, brilliant curation, and community building. We cannot wait for what comes next, and are still basking in the end-of-summer herstory we had the privilege of being a part of.
