Olivia Rodrigo tells festival critics they don’t have to buy a ticket

Singer Olivia Rodrigo says her all-women Daisy Chain Fields festival was political and that people who disagree with its message “don’t have to buy a ticket,” Fox News reported Thursday.

Ms. Rodrigo, 23, answered yes without hedging when The Hollywood Reporter asked whether the Aug. 29 event in Irvine, California, was political, Fox reported. She added that it was also about joy and that the two could coexist. She said young people have lost hope in their leaders and in each other, and that she wanted the festival to show what can happen when people come together.

The lineup included Chappell Roan, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Nicks and Doechii, and all of the performers worked for free, Ms. Rodrigo told NPR. Tickets sold out within 30 minutes of going on sale. They were offered in four tiers, starting at $255 and reaching $1,255 for the pit area near the stage, blue News reported. An NPR review of the festival described the political mission as woven through the day, with representatives of benefiting nonprofits addressing the crowd between most sets. It put attendance at about 45,000.

The festival raised $10 million, and philanthropist Melinda French Gates matched it onstage, bringing the total to $20 million, Variety reported. The money is to be split equally among 10 nonprofits, among them Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Baby2Baby and Black Mamas Matter Alliance.

Ms. Rodrigo has cited Lilith Fair, the touring festival Ms. McLachlan co-founded in the 1990s, as her model. She told NPR that women had more bodily autonomy in America during Lilith Fair’s run than they do now, though she said the music industry has changed for the better for women.

At the festival, she performed “Serena Joy” live for the first time. The title draws in part on a character from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Fox reported that the lyrics prompted speculation that the song targets President Trump, an interpretation Ms. Rodrigo declined to confirm.

She has also clashed with the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security used her song “All-American Bitch” in a video in November 2025, and Ms. Rodrigo has said she objected to a song she wrote about the way society confines women being set to what she described as scenes of ICE raids. On Sept. 3, she told NPR that “picking fights with pop stars is a great distraction,” arguing the administration uses such disputes to draw attention from other matters, Billboard reported. DHS told Billboard that America is grateful for federal law enforcement officers and suggested Ms. Rodrigo thank them for their service.

Podcast host Ben Ferguson told Fox the festival reflected Hollywood hypocrisy and that Ms. Rodrigo was treating her audience like political followers. He argued that welcoming only those who agree with her is not inclusion. Film critic Christian Toto, founder of Hollywood in Toto, said alienating large segments of an audience by getting hyper-political is less than ideal.

Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff praised her openness, saying celebrities who stay silent on current events can come across as inauthentic. He said “don’t buy a ticket” is more honest than pretending the politics are incidental, but that it carries a tradeoff. Once a show carries a political message, disagreement with that message becomes part of the consumer experience, he said.