What is Daisy Chain Fields?

A music festival created by Olivia Rodrigo highlighting an all female line-up and supporting nonprofits supporting issues affecting women & girls. In her own words:

" …founded on the belief that joy, community, and creativity can inspire meaningful change."

My Role

From the day I heard about this festival I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I signed up to work the festival and got stationed in the Daisy Chain Reaction section with all 10 nonprofits the festival partnered with!

I was responsible for the specialty tote bags folks had the opportunity to get after collecting a pin from each of the 10 nonprofit partners!

Things I Loved

You could tell the design of this festival was rooted in its mission and so well thoughtfully crafted. From a bead fountain where you could make your own friendship bracelets, to beautiful art installations throughout the grounds, to cooling buses for concert goers to take a break from the summer heat. You could tell that they wanted people to feel seen, safe, and to experience unbridled joy as they attended the festival.

I really loved the idea of giving out a free tote bag once you had collected a pin from each of the nonprofits. They were all doing incredible work and deserved to be highlighted! This was a great way to platform these organizations and give folks an opportunity to interact with them while gamifying the experience in an engaging way.

Considerations For Next Year

As a designer it was so interesting being a part of an event at such a large scale because there were so many decisions to be made.

Here are a few observations I had throughout the day:

Shaded Areas and Line Management

I noticed the line to get into the nonprofit area (where I was stationed) was extremely long and had no shaded areas. Some folks waited up to 3 hours in line with no shade in 90+ degrees.

Next year I think adding cooling fans/misters to line areas along with some sun cover will allow folks to participate without sacrificing their safety. They had large flower art installations throughout the festival they could even turn something like that into a tasteful shaded area.

Signage & Explanations

For the tote bags I had at least 100 people throughout the day ask the following questions:

• What is this?

• How much is the tote?

• Do I need to get the pins first or the tote first?

We didn't have any type of signage before folks entered or at the table where we would hand out totes. This would have made the flow of traffic smoother overall and helped us field questions during peak times. An FAQ at the main desk or even a QR code folks could scan before entering explaining the pin system would have helped a lot!

Because we couldn't do this, we had folks managing the lines explain what was in the Daisy Chain Reaction and how to get a tote. This made for a smoother second half of the day and cleared up a lot of the congestion we were facing from fielding questions!

Overall Thoughts

This festival was so intentional and it made me as a worker and concert goer feel so seen! I felt like I could rely on others around me for help, and I soaked in the beautiful energy that this festival fostered. I love seeing how design can strongly impact peoples experiences in any environment. Although there were areas for improvement, I felt like the design of this festival was amazing and left a lot of people really happy and inspired! It was an honor to be a part of something so impactful and I hope to be able to attend in the future.