When I first saw the poster for Olivia Rodrigo’s inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival in June, I assumed it was AI. Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski, the Breeders, Bikini Kill and Garbage, all arranged in a neat line – and this was before I got to the words “special guests”. Karen O, Sarah McLachlan. And, to top it all off, Stevie Nicks? No.

I saw the post confirmed on Rodrigo’s Instagram, and thought: how?

According to Shirley Manson, the Garbage singer, Rodrigo called up every act one by one. “I told her it was very unusual for an agent not to be doing that.” Rodrigo isn’t shy about her influences, and has gushed about Garbage’s music as an inspiration for her own. “And unlike many artists, she doesn’t say she’s inventing the wheel; she knows she’s just a spoke within it,” said Manson.

Rodrigo has earned the regard of some of the world’s most respected musicians partly for this reason: she had a feature with Robert Smith on her latest album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love and has dueted with The Smashing Pumpkins and Sheryl Crow. Which brings us to the lineup of the summer: a string of major coups assembled for Rodrigo’s intergenerational celebration and first festival, Daisy Chain Fields. The one-day event will take place on 29 August at the Great Park in Irvine, California, bringing together an unusually broad assembly of women spanning Rodrigo’s influences, both new and lifelong.

There is no competitive element or hierarchy among the acts: no two sets will overlap, and on the poster, every name appears in the same typeface and font size, no matter how established or fresh the act. “It creates a necessary and refreshing culture of community, setting up women’s art to be received and valued in a less competitive and capitalist environment,” said Eli, the pop artist whose music answers the question: what if Ashlee Simpson, but camp?

Eli is one of the festival’s most obviously new-generation additions, her name listed on the poster between Doechii and Garbage. Daisy Chain Fields is her first festival. Eli had no idea Rodrigo was a fan until Rodrigo called her herself on a video call. She was driving home from a writing session when Rodrigo FaceTimed her, forcing her to pull over.

“It was almost like she was pitching it to me, and I was like: ‘Girl, you could’ve asked me to work the concessions for free and I would’ve been there,” she said.

On an equally sincere note, Eli said she was “completely blown away by the heart of her efforts and inspired by the depths of her intentions to stand for something: women’s rights and peace on Mother Nature’s globe”.

One hundred per cent of Daisy Chain Fields’ net proceeds will be distributed among organizations including Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, while reproductive-rights education and non-profit activations will be spotted throughout the festival site.

Daisy Chain Fields belongs to a lineage of female-led music festivals that have tried to raise money for female-focused causes while correcting a stubborn gender imbalance across festival lineups – one that has always existed, and still does. (A 2025 report from Book More Women found that women accounted for just 21.6% of headliners across nine major music festivals.) In 1976, second-wave feminists and lesbian separatists founded The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, which combined an all-women lineup with educational workshops and health services.

But Rodrigo’s most direct model for Daisy Chain is Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair, the hugely successful touring festival McLachlan launched in 1997 as a showcase for women in music. McLachlan was the first person Rodrigo called when she began dreaming up Daisy Chain, and she’s scheduled to perform both her own set and alongside Rodrigo during hers.

Garbage meanwhile, was invited to play Lilith Fair in the 90s and turned it down. Nearly three decades later, Manson sees a different urgency in Rodrigo’s festival. “I might have been naive, but it felt like there was more progress for women then,” she explained of her decision to decline McLachlan’s invitation. “And here we are in 2026, as women’s rights are regressing all over the world. We’re at a crisis point.”

Chappell Roan, who will perform right before Rodrigo’s headlining set, is pursuing a similar idea from a different angle. In October, she will launch her inaugural two-night charity fundraiser, The Super Graphic Spectacular, with 100% of net proceeds directed to LGBTQ+ community mutual-aid funds. With a slightly different focus, she answers the same question as Rodrigo: what can an artist do with the scale of a major live event besides selling tickets?

Roan said she felt “honored” when Rodrigo asked her to play her own festival. “Being able to go see a show right now feels like such a privilege, and it’s more important than ever for those shows to be safe spaces of inclusivity where fans can disconnect, even if only for a few hours, to have fun and just be together and feel joy,” said Roan. She sees the charitable component as far more than an adjunct, but the main reasons for doing it. “Being able to give back, especially to the people who have shown me so much support, is at the center of my project and what keeps me going,” she said.

Eli, looking at what Rodrigo has assembled, sees something larger in it still. “Olivia gives me hope that we can lead our generation and generations to come to a harmonious earth filled with strange girls and happy hearts.”

• Daisy Chain Fields is in Great Park, Irvine, California on 29 August