Olivia Rodrigo announced yesterday the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields Festival, set to take place on August 29th in Irvine, CA and the roster of artists on deck is stacked with both legends and future icons spanning multiple genres.

The best part? It is entirely female. Some of the bigger names on the list along with Olivia include Chappell Roan, Doechii, KATSYE, Mitski, Garbage, Rachel Chinouriri, Santigold, the legendary Stevie Knicks and more. But there’s one name on the bill that is extra special: Sarah McLachlan.

Sarah McLachlan of course spearheaded Lilith Fair, a cultural phenomenon upon its inception in 1996. Everyone from Jewel, Tracy Chapman, Erykah Badu, Fiona Apple, Paula Cole, and more performed at the festival. Nearly three decades later, its influence is still being felt and it is Olivia who is holding the torch. Olivia herself appeared in the 2025 documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery where she spoke about the legacy of the festival and the impact it has made on her in her own music career. Her participation in that documentary made it clear that to her, Lilith Fair was the blueprint. This is what makes Daisy Chain Fields Festival feel bigger than just another celebrity-curated festival. She’s using her enormous platform to introduce Gen Z to that legacy of which she herself is a product. Just as Lilith Fair became a defining cultural moment for Gen X and Millennials, Daisy Chain Fields has the potential to become the Gen Z equivalent and Olivia is the driving force. The fact that Sarah is one of the special guests on the bill is as impressive a flex as any. She’s collecting her icons one by one, and as a music fan, it is a privilege to watch this unfold in real time.

Similar to what Sarah did with Lilith Fair in the late 90s, Olivia is presenting a safe space for women in music to shine and for fans of all genders and cultures to celebrate together. The mission statement behind the festival lays out its intentions. Daisy Chain Fields is a place for community and a space where knowledge is power. Proceeds from tickets will go to various charities dedicated to helping women and young girls. This is the same woman who has championed Planned Parenthood at her concerts and stood up against misogynistic voices in the music industry. If there was any popstar of this generation who would be re-opening the doors that the greats before her first broke down, it would be Olivia.

In her latest cover story for Pitchfork, Olivia talks about how when she first released her debut album, it was cool for artists to talk politics, and now the dynamics have shifted. That shift is what helped inspire this career move; as she says, “that’s what the original Lilith Fair was about –they wouldn’t book two women on a bill, they wouldn’t play two women back-to-back on the radio which I think is still the case in country radio – you should fact-check that though.” Fact-checking herself while throwing shade at the misogynistic undertones in country radio? This is a woman after my own heart. One of the biggest takeaways from the Lilith Fair documentary was seeing just how important it was for Sarah to spotlight female artists and women-led organizations, all while sticking it to the misogynistic men who were running the music industry. Having an artist as famous and successful as Olivia carry on the message that she worked and fought so hard for back in the 90s must feel like the ultimate reward, especially since Sarah herself mentioned in a May 2026 interview that she was waiting to see who would be the one from today’s generation to take her torch and that it would have to be someone like Olivia Rodrigo. Someone whose influence is strong enough today to create the next chapter for Lilith, manifesting that “the younger generation needs to carry it forward now”. Talk about a foreshadowing and full-circle moment.

Liv has been a hot topic in music for the last couple of weeks with the uber successful release of her third studio album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. The main takeaway from the record has been just how much the music is resonating with audiences of all ages, specifically because of how inspired she’s been by the iconic female rockers who shaped her sound. The album has earned her comparisons to artists like Alanis Morissette, Shirley Manson, Gwen Stefani, Courtney Love and more. All of this has resulted in the biggest opening sales week of her career, with an impressive 485,000 copies sold, making her the second highest sales week of the year (only behind BTS). She was always going to debut with big numbers simply out of curiosity, but it’s the quality of the music that helped produced a number so high. Olivia has tapped into a pop-rock mainstream market that has been vacant for so many years, and I wholeheartedly believe that is the reason for this wave of success she is on. Just like Sarah McLachlan did before her, Olivia is using her cultural influence in her peak commercial years to help pave the way for the next generation of women in music, and as a result, is further adding to a legacy while also adding her own chapter in it – by properly acknowledging those who made her possible.

Photo credits: PA Images/INSTARimages

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