By Maya Calabrese
The Daisy Chain Fields Festival, on Saturday, August 29th, was a festival of all female performers, raising money and awareness for women’s rights in Orange County Great Park. The festival ended up raising ten million dollars for organizations that contribute to women and girls’ health care, and Melinda French Gates, an American philanthropist, matched these earnings, bringing the total to twenty million dollars.
The event was inspired by Lilith Fair, a festival created by Sarah McLachlan, a concert tour in the 1990s that was also made up of all female performers, including Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Tracy Chapman, and Fiona Apple. The Daisy Chain Fields Festival was created and headlined by Olivia Rodrigo, and included more popular artists like Chappell Roan, Bikini Kill, Mitski, and Doechii. In addition, performers from the original Lilith Fair were featured, such as McLachlan and Stevie Nicks.
Kristen Calabrese, an Irvington parent who went to Lilith Fair at the Jones Beach Theater, recalled her experience at the festival, and remembered, “There was a really nice sense of community and women coming together.” Calabrese recalled seeing Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, and the Indigo Girls, and at the festival, there were many information booths about political issues concerning women and their health.
The Daisy Chain Fields Festival had a similar goal, as they wanted to spread the word about women’s rights regarding pro-choice health issues. “The idea of the concert was about challenging the music industry because there’d never been a concert with so many women together,” said Calabrese, “usually women were made to be competitors with each other but this was challenging that idea.”
Rodrigo began the new festival in an attempt to build a new sense of community and to empower women, allowing them to come together through music. Lilah Maglienti, a tenth-grader at Irvington High School and Olivia Rodrigo fan supported the festival greatly, and was excited at the idea of a similar festival closer to Irvington. “I think that the Daisy Chain Fields Festival is presenting a great message for women’s rights and that’s an issue everywhere,” she said.
