I went to Daisy Chain Fields... Here are my Thoughts, by Kas Batchelor

Flashback to 2021: picture me, 15 years old with all the angst and drama that comes from being a teenage girl in the 2020s, listening to Olivia Rodrigo’s debut single “drivers license” in my bed. I’m sure you can imagine the teary-eyed music-video montage that played in my head at that time. Many of you can relate to that scene as well! If you had told my younger self that in 2026, she’d be flying to Orange County, California to see Olivia’s first all-women musician festival, Daisy Chain Fields, she would have lost her mind even further.

Out of sheer luck of winning the Ticketmaster war, I was at the first ever installment of Daisy Chain Fields. It was actually my first ever music festival! I went in with extremely high hopes and expectations after having pined for events such as Coachella and Lollapalooza for years now. The lineup was promising with many of my favorite iconic artists: Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski, Not For Radio, Bikini Kill, and of course, Olivia Rodrigo herself. Beyond the amazing lineup, the concert partnered with 10 non-profit organizations focused on advocating for women’s rights and equality. Specifically, organizations that advanced reproductive rights, Black maternal health, Indigenous health, sexual and domestic violence awareness, and many other important equality-driven foundations. Every single net proceeding from the festival was going to be split and donated to each of the 10 organizations. It was an amazing cause that I knew I wanted to be a part of.

With that in mind, my girlfriend Janelle and I decided to take our chance at going to the festival. We ended up buying 2 VIP hotel package tickets, which gave us perks such as a closer view of the main stage, The Dandelion Stage, as well as specific food vendors, shade canopies, and separate merch and water refill stations. We booked our plane tickets and eagerly awaited August 29th.

It was the day of; Janelle and I had woken up, ate, and quickly gotten ready while blasting you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love in the hotel bathroom. After driving to a spot to catch a free bus to the concert, we boarded and headed over to the festival entrance. As soon as we walked in, the heat and the excitement hit. It had just so happened that the 29th was a high of 99°F in Orange County, but we were ready to beat the heat with our refillable water bottles and tube of sunscreen. It was 11:00 am, with the first concerts starting at 11:30, so we decided to hit up some of the activation spots from the sponsors, which included Etsy, Depop, Taco Bell, and more. We surveyed the area and noticed that each of these activation spots had long lines already, even with the festival only opening 30 minutes prior. Considering that, we headed to the Etsy Creative Village which showcased exclusive vendor Daisy-themed merchandise as well as an indoor area that had embroidery, junk-journal making, and a parlor. Once in line, we waited around 45 minutes till we were ushered inside with only one industrial mist-fan positioned in a corner of the line. What wasn’t advertised was that all three of the indoor experiences were pay only. If you wanted a scarf embroidered, you could get it done for free, but with the cost of a $30 scarf. If you wanted to get hair tinsel, you could also do that for free, but only if you bought a $45 bandana. This was not necessarily a huge issue, I will always support small businesses, but an activation zone not being advertised as needing to be paid for was a bit of a red flag.

Janelle and I walked out with two pieces of hair tinsel and a cute, homemade bandana, then went to see what else was around. Another aspect of Daisy Chain Fields was the art installations made specifically for the festival. These included a wish tree from Yoko Ono, a large textile flag made by Rachel Hayes, and my favorite: a chalk “Complaints Department” wall from the iconic activist group the Guerilla Girls. 

Next to the “Complaints Department” was a large building that housed all 10 of the non-profit organizations. Before the festival, it was advertised that you could go inside and collect pins from each charity while also hearing about their mission. If you collected all 10 pins, you earned an exclusive tote bag to hang your pins on in the shape of a flower bouquet. I was excited for this, both because I love collecting pins, and because I wanted a chance to meet the organizations face-to-face. However, once we got a glimpse of the line,we knew it was not a possibility. I would estimate it was at least a 2 hour wait to get inside, and while you were waiting to go indoors, you were stuck waiting outside in the direct sun. 

Since our hope of getting into the activation and donation centers dwindled with the reality of the waiting time, Janelle and I went to the VIP section to grab some $20 food and drinks (each) before Bikini Kill’s set at 2:50pm. It isn’t that unusual for alcohol, beverage, and food prices to be jacked up at concerts, but thankfully, the primarily women-owned food businesses served very good food with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options. At around 1:00 pm, while we were eating, we were able to find seating under the single, albeit, very large canopy. At this point in the afternoon, it seemed that the majority of the concert goers hadn’t arrived yet. Maybe to avoid the heat or because they were waiting for the larger artists’ set; during the early afternoon access to shade and food was not a huge issue.

We finished our food and decided to head to the second stage, The Marigold Stage, across the park. We caught the end of Die Spitz’s set and hurried our way to the barricade so I could get a good spot for Bikini Kill, one of my favorite bands ever. We had rallied with water thanks to the refill stations placed around the venue, but we were starting to feel the effects of the blaring sun only 3-4 hours into being at the festival. I had already started to burn, and Janelle had to rush to get more water at one point since she had begun to feel a bit woozy. Once Bikini Kill started playing, all of my worries about the sun went away. We jammed hard for the majority of the set list; me screaming my lungs out as Kathleen Hanna sang about the injustices and hypocrisies women face, and then we rushed back over to The Dandelion Stage to get a good spot before Mitski came on.

Oh man, Mitski made me sob like a baby. Her set was very low-key, in classic Mitski style. Her band was phenomenal and her singing and dancing was theatrical and incredibly emotional. She sang a mixture of her classic and new hits such as “I Bet on Losing Dogs”, “That White Cat”, and my personal favorite song, “Francis Forever.” Her performance was just what was needed to relax the audience and prepare us for the emotional rollercoaster of the rest of the day.

After Mitski’s performance ended at 4:20, we decided that now was a good time to use the mobile bathrooms, grab some more food and water, and sit under the shade. Janelle decided to go grab us food while I waited under the canopy, which had grown quickly packed since we had left to visit The Marigold Stage. It seemed that the crowd was in full force now, with many people crammed under the canopy. It was at this point that I realized there was no service whatsoever in the venue. I didn’t have a way to reach Janelle since we had split up, nor contact any of the friends or family who had reached out to ask how the festival was going. Thankfully, Janelle found me 30 minutes later after I had made friends with the kind older woman next to me who let me look through the Daisy Chain Zine her daughter had bought.

Janelle mentioned that now was the best time to get food since everyone would be rushing to eat after Doechii’s set ended at 6:00 pm. We got in line for a taco truck only to find out that they were not serving any vegetarian options since they had a huge rush to move through. So, we instead went to a pizza truck. In line, we waited 20 minutes to order and then an additional 30 minutes to receive our four slices of pizza. Let me preface this by saying that in the VIP section, there were around 5 trucks offering food, but many more options outside of VIP. Based on what we had heard from others at the festival, the lines for food outside of VIP were just as bad of a line as the VIP options. It seemed to me that the trucks were not properly staffed or had enough truck options in general to accommodate for how many people were at the festival, similarly to the issue with the activation centers. With that being said, we spent most of the time enjoying the Doechii concert from the food line. She was absolutely amazing though, going full force on the choreography, set, and vocals. Not to mention, Doechii was painted pink! I was a bit bummed to not be in the crowd dancing, but Janelle’s intuition was proven right, because as soon as her set ended, people rushed to go get food and drinks.

With our pizza, Janelle and I made our way up in the crowd to wait for Chappell to come on at 7:00 pm. We ended up making friends with another Californian woman who was by herself waiting for Chappell as well (funnily enough, she had visited Miami University before). At this point, the sun was beginning to set after what must have been one of the hottest days I’ve ever encountered as a Midwesterner. With conversation and food passing the time, Chappell came on to great excitement from the crowd since this was her first live performance in almost 10 months. Chappell was phenomenal;, playing all of her hits and dancing around the stage without a care in the world. That was when I realized one of the best parts of this festival was how joyful and full of excitement the performers were. They were performing for free, fully for the benefit of making a difference in the world for women. Each of the artists had given show-stopping performances, giving their all to the crowd. Janelle and I danced and screamed till we were exhausted and the performance concluded. Then, we eagerly awaited Olivia Rodrigo to come on at 8:40pm.

At this point, the sun was almost fully set. I was burnt, tired, and my feet hurt. It was another hour wait until Olivia came on, so I sat on the ground for the majority of the time. I thankfully hadn’t seen anyone around me experience dehydration. It seemed that many people were taking advantage of the water stations. However, since we were so packed in waiting for Olivia to start, security started throwing cartons of water to the crowd. Thankfully no dehydration occurred around me, but there were quite a lot of bonked heads.

8:40pm came and the crowd started cheering. Olivia walked on and made a speech thanking us, the organizations, and the other performers for such an amazing day. She told the crowd that we had donated 10 million dollars to the organizations and announced that Melinda Gates vowed to match what the crowd raised. In total, the concert donated 20 million dollars / 2 million dollars each to the non-profit organizations. She thanked everyone again, and then started her performance.

Olivia was incredible. You could tell how well her stage presence and vocals had grown with her. She took the stage and controlled it. She sang songs from all three of her albums, mainly the biggest hits she had, specifically songs like “drop dead,” “bad idea right?,” “my way,” and her newest single “serena joy.” After the first part of her performance, Olivia brought out Sarah McLachlan, the soulful ‘90s pop artist who was the founder of Lilith Fair. Lilith Fair was a ground breaking all-women festival that ran from 1997 to 1999 with a revival in 2010. Sarah founded it in response to music executives who told her that a festival with only women musicians would not be widely attended, it was also Olivia’s inspiration for Daisy Chain Fields. Together, Sarah and Olivia sang Sarah’s song “Building a Mystery” as well as “Angel” as a tribute to Dolly Parton. 

After Sarah left the stage, Olivia continued her performance with “drivers license” and “the cure” before revealing that she was bringing Alanis Morissette out on stage as a surprise guest to perform “Ironic.” As a massive Alanis fan, this was life changing for me. Their voices sounded beautiful together, and like the other artists, you could tell how much fun they were having singing together. Then , Olivia performed “expectations.” She was swaying around the stage, dancing with her band and encouraging the audience to sing as well. Finally, as her big conclusion, Olivia brought out Stevie Nicks to sing “Landslide.” I think the majority of the crowd had to have been sobbing at this point. While Stevie Nicks had just concluded her tour a year prior, I had tried to get tickets to it and failed, so seeing her in the flesh now was incredible. Their duet was also magnificent and so emotional. When they concluded, Olivia thanked the fans once more for everything before Stevie took the mic and asked everyone to give Olivia an extra round of applause.

Thankfully, that high did not sink as we had to navigate through the crowd of 45 thousand to make our way out. An issue with this was that the only exit out of the festival was the original main entrance, so it was a slow pace to make our way through. After we finally did leave, we ran around for a while trying to find the free buses to take you to ride share spots. Once we did find them, the line was way too long to wait in. We walked for a while on the main road before finding solace at a random church on the side of a highway. We booked our ride home and finally arrived at our hotel at midnight, going straight to bed before we had to be at the airport at 4:00 am the next morning.

There were pros and cons to the first installment of Daisy Chain Fields. Granted, it was their first go at putting on a spectacle like this, but there were many issues throughout the day that could have been avoided if management had thought ahead. Janelle and I were very lucky to have gotten VIP tickets, as many of the people in GA were left without adequate shade during the hottest day in California, consistent areas to refill water bottles, and food and drink lines that took hours. I couldn’t even imagine the horrors of needing ADA accommodations at this event. The greatest highlight of the festival was the performances themselves and raising money for a good cause. The performers gave the festival their full effort and attention, and seemed to have a fun time doing it. It was also incredibly gratifying to find out how much money attendance had raised in total. I strongly believe that if Olivia and her team do this festival again, it will be less of a bumpy road with more foresight ahead to what the day will look like. With that being said, the festival was so much fun to attend and overall a great success.