daisy chain fields forever?!
on Olivia Rodrigo's new music festival and the legacy of Lilith Fair
Hi, happy Wednesday! Mere hours after I sent out the Monday roundup in which I discussed the new Olivia Rodrigo album, she announced her own music festival. I wanted to discuss it while it was still topical!
Most Aprils, I gear up to attend High Water Festival, a weekend-long music festival at a gorgeous riverfront venue in my hometown. It is, as far as music festivals go, my ideal set up: only two stages, not too crowded, not too hot, largely very chill vibes, lots of great sets and new discoveries. I do have one major complaint though: women are always wildly underrepresented on the lineup. In fact, in its near decade history, there has never been a female solo headliner at High Water. Not one! The closest they’ve come was when Alabama Shakes, fronted by Brittany Howard, headlined this past April. The full lineups aren’t much better; every single year, there are only six to eight female acts out of a twenty to twenty two band lineup. Which I guess isn’t surprising, but it is enraging! Women still aren’t seen as commercially viable or big enough sells. I don’t know how many times we will have to disprove this, but it’s fucking exhausting. And it always makes me think of Lilith Fair.
I never attended Lilith Fair, the series of music festivals featuring an all-female lineup founded by Sarah McLachlan in the 1990s, but I have long been fascinated by it. It’s such a time capsule of that moment in music, and is the exact event that my all-girls-summer-camp-attendee soul craves.
Lilith Fair was back in the news last year when the documentary Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery premiered on Hulu. I am, obviously, the exact intended audience for this kind of documentary which features unseen, behind the scenes footage, concert footage [Sinead O’Connor performing with Sarah McLachlan? All the featured artists joining The Indigo Girls for “Closer to Fine?” Amazing stuff.], and new interviews with Lilith Fair performers including Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, Natalie Merchant, Liz Phair, Erykah Badu, and Sheryl Crow as well as Lilith Fair attendees and fans like Brandi Carlile, Dan Levy, and Olivia Rodrigo. It presents a lovely, nostalgic, uncomplicated picture of Lilith Fair. And that is very nice!
And while that is very nice and uplifting and heartwarming, the documentary also made me sad. A kind of sad that snuck up on me, that I really wasn’t expecting. Because for everything Lilith Fair did for women in music (and to be clear, it did a lot), I still feel like not much has changed. Culture at large is as patriarchal [and racist and homophobic] as it ever was. Men still dominate the charts, especially pop and country. Male musicians who have done terrible things continue to have big, lucrative careers. And, as previously mentioned, men continue to receive the majority of bookings at music festivals.
Some music festivals are trying to right these wrongs. All Things Go, a festival that takes place in New York City, Toronto, and outside of Washington DC, has done a good job in the last few years of platforming almost exclusively female and/or queer artists. And now, as of this past Monday, pop star Olivia Rodrigo has announced her own music festival called Daisy Chain Fields. In the announcement post, Olivia says that “Daisy Chain Fields features an all-women lineup and 100 percent of the net proceeds will go to charities dedicated to advancing and advocating for women and girls.”
I just said earlier this week that Olivia’s new album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, was going to push me into full-on fandom, but it’s actually this festival that’s done it. I already liked Olivia’s commitment to promoting social justice and reproductive rights organizations at her tours and for playing with an all-female and non-binary live band, but this is beyond.
Olivia, who served as a talking head in the Lilith Fair documentary, is very obviously a fan of that festival. [You may have noticed that Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan is listed among the special guests for Daisy Chain Fields.] Per her new cover story with Pitchfork, “Daisy Chain Fields was directly inspired by Lilith Fair, the late-’90s music festival cofounded by Sarah McLachlan, which McLachlan created in response to sexist industry claims that said tours wouldn’t sell if they featured more than one woman, and speaks to Rodrigo’s passion for equity for women in music.” I really like that Olivia puts in the work to understand her references and to credit them appropriately; in an interview with Diane Sawyer, she says Sarah was the first person she called when she had the idea to put on the festival.
I also like that puts her money where her mouth is. In addition to the all-female lineup, Olivia says that 100% of the net profits from the festival will go towards organizations that support women’s causes including the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, Planned Parenthood, and the National Women’s Law Center. Reportedly, the artists on the lineup are performing for free in support of these causes. Olivia told Pitchfork:
“All of the artists who are doing it are making no profit,” … “I just feel like we need something really positive to do and see, and young girls need awesome role models who are supporting other women and who are engaging in something that’s really joyful and musical and community-oriented.”
She’s right. I started playing guitar because I saw women I looked up to playing guitar - Jenny Lewis, Taylor Swift, every cool camp counselor I ever had. Seeing these women play live was, in fact, life changing. Community, creativity, and inspiration are the very powerful direct effects of live music, and I’m so excited that someone as high-profile as Olivia Rodrigo is leading the charge on this kind of event. I hope Daisy Chain Fields will be the Lilith Fair for the next generation. I hope there’s a day when this kind of festival doesn’t feel revolutionary or necessary. But until then, I hope this is just the first of many years of this festival. Girl power!!!
For whatever it’s worth, here’s a mix of artists I’d hand-select for my own Lilith Fair/Daisy Chain Fields style festival! Yes, in my dream world I am able to secure Tracy Chapman, PJ Harvey, and Ani DiFranco as my legacy acts!!! And, duh, Jenny Lewis, Charli XCX, and Robyn are there too.
We're so proud of Olivia! That's how you make a difference with your platform.
Great list of artists! Both at Daisy Chain and your dream list.