Olivia Rodrigo Sings With Stevie Nicks At Daisy Chain Fields, Raises $20M For Women’s Rights: “See You Next Year”

Olivia Rodrigo held her much-anticipated women-led Daisy Chain Fields in Irvine, CA last night. The inaugural event raised $10 million for women’s rights nonprofits, and Melinda French Gates is doubling that amount with a $10 million donation through her charity Pivotal. At a press conference on Friday, Rodrigo said the artists and activists participating in Daisy Chain gave her hope amid the current "regression of women’s rights."

The lineup was spread across two stages with no overlapping sets. Marigold Stage hosted Quiet Light, Rachel Chinouriri, Bikini Kill, Garbage, former Rodrigo openers the Breeders, and future Rodrigo openers Die Spitz. Dandelion Stage had Eli, Santigold, Devon Again (added after KATSEYE were sidelined because a member sprained her ankle), Mitski, Doechii, Chappell Roan (also a former Rodrigo opener), and the Olivia Rodrigo & Special Guests headline set.

At Great Park, the "Daisy Lane" walk path was plastered with messages and quotes highlighting important milestones for women over the past 130 years, while the Philanthropy Village had booths for the fest's ten nonprofit partners, including Planned Parenthood and the National Women’s Law Center. There was an extreme heat warning for the area, and Daisy Chain was prepared. There were also activations for Rodrigo's latest brand partners, LEGO and Taco Bell.

Celebrities taking in the day included Drew Barrymore, Rachel Zegler, Conan Gray, Victoria Justice, Wallows, Melissa Auf der Maur, Ella Emhoff, and Mike Shinoda. And although KATSEYE didn't perform, members Lara Raj, Yoonchae Jeung, and Megan Skiendiel (the injured one) made a surprise appearance before Devon Again to introduce one of the nonprofits, Baby2Baby.

"Olivia Rodrigo called me on my cellphone, personally, and was like, 'Would you do this?'" Mitski told the crowd about her no-brainer decision to participate. "I was like, 'Um, okay Olivia Rodrigo. Um, sure, big festival benefitting women and girls? Yeah, I guess I'll find time!" She added, "I feel like we should do this every year, right?"

Although she didn't sing any new songs, Roan did debut a new bob, and her outfit was apparently inspired by Jean Paul Gaultier's Fhloston flight attendant uniforms in the movie The Fifth Element. When Roan playfully calls out unengaged concertgoers it's usually during "HOT TO GO!," but last night's callout came during "The Subway." "Standing with your arms folded?!" she joked about a man in the crowd. "Are you grumpy? Don't be grumpy, it's Daisy Chain!"

"This government hates us and wants us dead," Kathleen Hanna remarked during Bikini Kill's set. "They don't give a shit about anybody's healthcare. They don't care if we're dying in parking lots of curable illnesses. They don't give a shit. They don't care if our rights are taken away. They're ripping people off the streets. I'm not gonna tell you all the bad things! But I am gonna say it makes it hard for me in my body sometimes to have a good time. 'Cause it's hard to turn it off. And I was thinking that on the way here. I was like, 'What a gift.' What a gift we have to be able to play for you. What a gift Olivia has given all of us to do this festival."

Hanna is one of Rodrigo's heroes, a connection the Bikini Kill legend discussed in a Stereogum interview a few years ago:

My kid did meet Olivia Rodrigo, who got us tickets to her concert. I was on tour, so I couldn't go. [Olivia] said something really nice about me to my kid. But he said, "Mom, you're still not cool."

I was like, "Okay, I just want to ask you this. I got you and your friend backstage at the Olivia Rodrigo concert, and she said I was one of her heroes." And he's like, "She also said she loved my hair." And I was like, "Okay, can we just not talk about how she loved your hair right now and just talk about I'm one of Olivia Rodrigo's heroes? Could you please just let that sink in? Am I cool now?" And he's like, "Not really."

For "Rebel Girl" (which Rodrigo lip-synced in a TikTok as the fest began), the band brought out Irvine's own Emily’s Sassy Lime, a fellow riot grrrl band that formed after seeing Bikini Kill in '93.

Rodrigo's set included around half of her exceptional new album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love and the live debut of her Handmaid's Tale-inspired loosie "serena joy," Stereogum's current reigning #1 Song Of The Week.

The promised special guests joining Rodrigo were Sarah McLachlan and Stevie Nicks, both of whom were announced in advance, and Alanis Morissette, who was not. Morissette was there in place of Karen O, who Rodrigo said couldn't make it because of a family emergency.

McLachlan, of course, co-founded her own women-led festival in the late '90s. “Without Lilith Fair, there would be no Daisy Chain,” Rodrigo said while introducing the Canadian pop-rock icon (who came straight from Noah Kahan's Vancouver show). Together they did “Building A Mystery” and “Angel,” both from the 1997 album Surfacing. The latter was dedicated to Dolly Parton, who passed away on Tuesday.

Rodrigo and Morissette have appeared together before. In 2021 they interviewed each other for Rolling Stone and the following year, the Jagged Little Pill star joined Rodrigo to duet "You Oughta Know" in Los Angeles.

"I listen to Jagged Little Pill when I'm feeling, like, I don't know what to say or like, who am I?" Rodrigo told Kathleen Hanna on the Music Makes Us podcast last year "For some reason that album, just like, every part of what makes a human being a human being, it feels like it's encapsulated in that record."

At Daisy Chain, they did "Ironic."

Finally, Stevie Nicks came to end the night with “Landslide," one of several Fleetwood Mac songs that have become absolutely huge with Gen Z (it just debuted on the Hot 100 this year, 51 years after its release). They did a sweet dance together in the middle.

"Thank you so much to all the countless people who believed in the vision of Daisy Chain," Rodrigo said afterwards. "Thank you to the nonprofits who work tirelessly to make our world a better place. And thank you mostly to you guys. You made this happen. You are so important and your voices matter so much."

Then she shared some news: Thank you so much, good night, and I will see you next year!"

"She reminds me a lot of me when I was her age, 100 years ago," Nicks concluded. "And I'm somewhat awestruck that she could do all this because it's so hard, you have no idea, putting something together with all these people, everything. And she's done it with this grace and this crazy, crazy energy that she has. And I told her, 'Don't ever give that up and don't let anybody change you…'

"So support her, come and be apart of her women's rights thing. We all will. And she's very special. Take her to your heart. I have."