Olivia Rodrigo Pulled Stevie Nicks, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah Mclachlan Onstage at Her Own Festival and Told the Crowd It Was the Best Day of Her Life

03 Sep 2026, 21:16 · Thought Catalog

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Updated 40 minutes ago, September 3, 2026

Fans have been begging Sarah McLachlan to bring back Lilith Fair for 30 years. She built the all-women festival in 1997 to fight an industry that wouldn’t play two women back-to-back. She’s said she’s too old to build it again. Then a nervous 23-year-old called her from beside her fireplace to ask for her blessing, and McLachlan said yes on the spot.

At Great Park Sports Complex in Irvine, CA, the Dandelion Stage hosted Olivia Rodrigo on August 29, 2026, as part of her Daisy Chain Fields Festival. Photo by Monica Schipper / Getty Images.

The first person Olivia Rodrigo called while planning Daisy Chain Fields was Sarah McLachlan, who ran Lilith Fair across the summers of 1997 through 1999 as an answer to promoters who said women couldn’t share a lineup.

At Great Park Sports Complex in Irvine, California, the Dandelion Stage hosted a joint appearance by Sarah McLachlan and Olivia Rodrigo during the Daisy Chain Fields Festival on August 29, 2026. Photo by Monica Schipper / Getty Images.

“I was so nervous to call you, and I was really cold, huddling by my fireplace in my house,” Rodrigo, 23, told Rolling Stone. “I was so over the moon to receive your blessing.” The two had never met in person until they filmed a joint interview days before the festival.

McLachlan had waved off the calls to revive Lilith for years. “I’m too old,” she said last year, adding that if it happened, it should be “someone young spearheading it.” When Rodrigo asked, the answer came instantly: “Joy and elation in an instant. I was like, ‘Hallelujah! Someone is finally taking the torch and carrying it forward.'”

Sarah McLachlan takes the stage at the Tribeca Film Festival’s IWC “For the Love of Cinema” Gala in New York City, April 2015. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images.

Daisy Chain Fields drew 45,000 fans to Great Park in Irvine, California on August 29. Every artist played for free, so 100 percent of proceeds went to charity, and the day raised $10 million for nonprofits benefitting women and girls, including the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood. Philanthropist Melinda French Gates then matched it, pushing the total to $20 million.

Olivia Rodrigo takes the stage at her Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival in Irvine, California on August 29, 2026. Photo by Mario Anzuoni / REUTERS.

Rodrigo headlined and pulled her heroes onstage: Alanis Morissette for “Ironic,” Stevie Nicks for “Landslide,” and McLachlan herself. “I feel like I’m dreaming,” she told the crowd. “This is the best day of my life.”

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