With 45,000 tickets sold and some 5,000 volunteers and staff expected, Olivia Rodrigo’s inaugural Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival is the biggest event at the Irvine Great Park and at least some first impressions from fans Saturday morning were positive.
A system of shuttles was expected to get the bulk of the fans to the one-day festival, there was parking at the venue for about 3,000. The organizers had arranged shuttles from lots at UC Irvine and from the OCVibe in Anaheim at the Honda Center. Some local hotels arranged their own shuttles.
Fans also used ride-sharing and friends and family to get to the Great Park, which was closed to other activities for the day.
Traffic on Sand Canyon Road was busier than usual, and people sought to be dropped off closer to the park. Several main roads were closed for the day. Access to residential areas was limited, and neighbors near the park needed to have picked up a dash pass to get in and out. A resident Saturday morning commented on Facebook about hearing the festival and residents reported hearing the sound checks the day before.
South Orange County local Timothy Yambao, 29, hitched a 15-minute Uber ride to a drop-off point by Technology Road in Irvine, where a continuous flow of yellow buses shuttled hundreds of Daisy Chain Fields goers toward the Great Park.
It was less than a 5-minute wait for about 100 people to get onto buses as of 10:30 am. As the morning continued the drop offs picked up but still went quickly.
“I’m very surprised with how easy it’s been so far,” Yambao said. “I feel like we’ve been hearing a lot of, like, oh, Irvine can’t handle this, or whatever, right? So there is a little bit of skepticism, but like so far, getting here, the shuttles, it’s been pretty good.”
Yambao and his friends — “frequent festival-goers” and ardent Olivia Rodrigo fans — came equipped with hydration packs, cooling fans and flower crowns.
By 11 a.m. the thermometer was reading more than 90 degrees.
The one-day festival dedicated to advocating for and uplifting women and girls is a first-of-its-kind event for the Grammy Award-winning artist. In a press conference on Friday, Rodrigo announced the festival was donating $10 million to its 10 nonprofit partners.
“I’m excited that it’s going to be all these nonprofits,” Yambao said Saturday. “That our money isn’t only going to the big businesses.”
It was a $30 and 20-minute Uber ride from Mission Viejo to the drop-off point for Megan Labrado, 24, her mom Donna, 54, and her girlfriend Reese Castaneda, 25.
The group had matching flower crowns and brought extras to trade during the festival.
To brave the heat, they packed extra water and wore bandanas; “I’m probably going to get that wet in the water stations and put it on me, but we’re preparing for the worst,” Megan Labrado said.
“I’m excited for Devon Again,” she said, adding she was also looking forward to catching Rodrigo’s performance with a surprise guest.
Donna Labrado said she’s not too familiar with the festival’s lineup, but was looking forward to Garbage taking the stage.
“I listened to a lot of Garbage growing up, myself,” she said. “So that’s going to be amazing.”
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.