Ep. 59 Bonnaroo Cancels 2027 Festival, Daisy Chain Fields Gets Mixed Reviews

Bonnaroo just dropped the news: no festival in 2027. We get into why a year off might be exactly what The Farm needs to come back stronger. Then we hop over to Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields, talking the mission, the crowd energy, and the logistics everyone's still talking about.

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Transcript

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Festies Intro And Two Headlines

Sunny 0:00

Hey Vanessa.

Vanessa 0:01

Yes, Sunny?

Sunny 0:02

What do you call two best friends that love music festivals? Hmm, I guess you'd call them Festies.

Vanessa 0:32 Sunny 0:41

What's up, Festies? Welcome back to the pod. We have two topics on deck today. First, if you haven't heard, I'm sorry that Vanessa's gonna break this news to you, but here it is.

Vanessa 0:52

Bonoroo 2027 has been canceled.

Sunny 0:57

No.

Vanessa 1:00

Um We're laughing, but it's sad. We're laughing so we don't cry.

Sunny 1:04

And then we're gonna switch gears to talk about Daisy Chain Fields, which is Olivia Rodrigo's brand new festival. We were not there, but the internet was, and we're here to talk all about it. Should we do Bonnaroo first? What do you think?

Vanessa 1:17

Um, yeah, we can do Bonnaroo first so we can get the sad stuff out of the way first and then move on to happier stuff. Okay, sounds good.

Bonnaroo 2027 Gets Canceled

Vanessa 1:26

Yeah, so I believe it was like August 21st that Bonnaroo announced on their Instagram that 2027 will not take place. Yeah. Everyone was very sad, but it's for a good reason. I think the farm needs a break for sure. Right. Um, they announced they'll be taking a fallow year, which I had never heard that term before. Uh-huh. Well, I don't even think they said, I don't know who said it, but somewhere I heard them say fallow year, and I looked it up. Basically, it means they're gonna leave the land alone so that it can recover and rest and recover. Sunny, I think you mentioned this in previous episodes about Glastonbury, how they do the same thing every four or five years. I forget what it is. They take a fallow year to kind of give the land like time off so that it's just not getting tormented every year.

Sunny 2:24

That seems to be sustainable for them. So I I'm I'm positive about uh this fallow year for Bonnaroo.

Vanessa 2:30

I think it'll be good. Uh I'm just hoping that they do come back in 2028, which it sounds like they are. Um, but of course, there's like all this online speculation about whether or not it's gonna come back. Some people think this is like them soft launching a permanent cancellation, like it's happened with other festivals that take a break and then they just never come back. But from what I've heard, it seems like there are already like planning for 2028. On the What podcast and the Roo Bus, they were talking about how sources that they know are reliable were talking about their making plans for 2028. But you know, it's still 2026, so anything can change. But the what podcast we've talked about on here before is a podcast that these three men do that's like all about Bonnaroo, like strictly about Bonnaroo. So they and they know a lot of insider people, so a reliable source, right? It's a reliable source, but yeah, so it sounds like the main reason they're canceling is to give that farm a rest. You know, they've had two years where it's like they've had a lot of storm damage and a lot of flooding, and we saw it this year with that main field at the main stage, like how muddy and just terrible it was. Because I remember the years when it was like grassy and green, you could sit down. So I hope that it really does help and that we come back in 2028 and it's beautiful and green again. I'm sure there are other reasons why I'm sure there is like a financial issue also. I mean, they had to cancel 2025 after they had already like planned everything, probably paid a lot of people, and so and then they gave everybody refund full refunds. So I'm sure there's that other factors that come into why they're canceling next year, but right.

Sunny 4:26

I don't know. I mean, I feel like this all started with the pandemic, right? So that that got canceled, and then 2021 was going to happen, and then that got canceled the day before. Yeah. So that year they also were giving everyone their refunds.

Vanessa 4:38

Uh-huh.

Sunny 4:39

Uh 2022 is when we went, right?

Vanessa 4:42

No, 2022 was my me and Ed's first year.

Sunny 4:45

Oh, that's right.

Vanessa 4:46

And then you get we all went 2023.

Sunny 4:49

Got it. Okay. So then they did have a couple years on, but since that 2023 one, they've also been canceled and rained, rained out pretty well during the So 22, 23, and 24 all happened.

Vanessa 5:02

We just none of us went in 24, but got it. 25 they canceled after Thursday. And then, you know, big part of that festival happened, so I'm sure they lost a lot of money there because they gave everybody free refunds or full refunds. Full refunds. You get a free refund. Free refund. Um, and then in 26 they had to scale it back, and they didn't do like a full programming on Thursday, and they sold less tickets and all that. But yeah, I'm surprised it didn't cancel Sunday because it did rain a lot over the weekend and like all day Sunday, and then the field was just like a muddy, muddy mess Sunday. Like even uh remember we told you that NoCon was like, why does it smell like shit out here? Are you guys just like shitting on the floor?

unknown 5:48

Yeah.

Sunny 5:49

On the ground. I'm sorry.

Vanessa 5:50

I always say floor instead of ground, but yeah.

Sunny 5:53

Because of all the all the stuff that they were like putting down to help soak up the mud. Yeah. I mean, I haven't, you know, done my own research and looked up, you know, what festivals have said that they're gonna take a year off and then not come back. But my guess

Fallow Year Reasons And Speculation

Sunny 6:10

is a lot of the ones that have had that story are not backed by Live Nation.

Vanessa 6:16

Um Yeah, and there's a lot of people like pissed off at Live Nation too, which understandably Yeah.

Sunny 6:27

But also they can't win. Um if they were to just go through with having another Bonnaroo and not have a break, and then that Bonnaroo would be just a sloppy mess, that would have been complaints against Live Nation. You know, taking this break, there are complaints against Live Nation. So everyone, you know, everyone's obviously entitled to their their feelings. Yeah.

Vanessa 6:52

I mean, they do suck, they do suck in general, but does suck, yeah, for sure.

Sunny 6:57

Uh for sure. But at the same time, there would be no Bonnaroo, hands down, without them. Like they're yeah, no one would be able to afford giving full refunds to how many people go to Bonnaroo?

Vanessa 7:09

80,000.

Sunny 7:11

Yeah.

Vanessa 7:13

But I know I know that the Bonaruvians will find a way to have their own mini ruse. They're already, you know, there's so many things already like in the works for mini rus or satellite ruse, whatever they're calling them. Um, yeah, all over Tennessee, all over probably everywhere, because people's Bonnaroo friends and camp camping friends and neighbors, I feel like they're from all over the place. So I feel like there might be a little mini ruse happening all over the US or the world. So yeah.

Sunny 7:42

Yeah, I mean, we're going to the same scene but different in a few weeks here. And I'm already seeing people on the community pages are like, any other Bonnaroo people going? You know, we need to connect. Nice. Things like that. I love the term satellite ruse. I think someone on the what podcast on the what podcast had said that.

Vanessa 8:00

Yeah.

Sunny 8:00

Just a year off, that sounds fine on paper. But then when I do the math and think about it, that if I were to go next time, I'd be practically 35. You would be 35. And like thinking like that, that hits a little different. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, are you? I know obviously life circumstances can change and who knows where you know we're gonna be at at that point. But does going and seeing for yourself what a year you're off helped with the farm interest you at all?

Vanessa 8:32

Yeah. Or are you like no, yeah, we definitely if they have it in 28 and we're able to go, then we we'll try. We'll definitely try. Right. Okay. Because even though I know when at in our Bonaroo recap, we were talking about how like we felt old and tired and I was sick, so take that into consideration. But um, yeah, when we look back, and you had a hell of a week or before. Yeah, and we when we like look back on it, we're like, that was really fun. So yeah, we were we had decided to go again next year and before they like made this announcement. So it's funny because I had seen somebody post like, why haven't they posted the the 2027 dates like a few days before I saw somebody complaining about that? And I was like, Will you guys just shut up? I was like, why is it why is everybody always complaining about something? Like, just shut up. Right. And then and then like a few days later, they're like, no bottom room. I was like, oh no.

Sunny 9:38

Maybe that person was uh expecting that announcement onto something, yeah.

Vanessa 9:42

Well, I know I do know that like the vendors, I think, were the first to know, and it was probably like a week or two before they announced it or something like that.

Sunny 9:50

Yeah, so okay, that's another thing that this affects the whole community, like and the the town like surrounding Bonaroo. This has such a far reach that people don't think about.

Vanessa 10:01

Right. I feel like yeah, that was gonna be my next point. Like, people are complaining that they don't get to go. It's like, okay, yeah, that really does suck because Bonaroo's so awesome. But like Bonnaroo brings in like millions of dollars to Manchester and Coffee County, and even though the locals don't really like Bonnaroo weekend, it really boosts their economy every summer. So that is really shitty. Like it actually is affecting like people's

Money Mud And Live Nation Tension

Vanessa 10:30

livelihoods. Yeah. So it sucks for other people more, and I hope that these little satellite Bonnaroos help them a little bit.

Sunny 10:40

Yeah, yeah. Just you know, everyone try to put out good vibes for uh and healing vibes for for the farm to uh you know regrow and be able to um handle the amount of people that Bonnaroo brings in.

Vanessa 10:54

Yeah.

Sunny 10:55

Yeah. So, you know, if we hear anything leading up to uh leading up to, we can't even talk like that. It's nowhere near. If we hear anything over the next couple years, you know, we'll talk about it on the podcast. Yeah. Should we switch gears?

Vanessa 11:10

Yeah, something happier.

Sunny 11:14

Something happier. Well, this we'll start off happier, but um everyone everyone's got their opinions. Of course. So we're gonna talk about Daisy Chain Fields, which is Oliv Olivia, Olivia, which is Olivia Olivia Rodrigo's festival. This was the inaugural year. It went down at Great Park in Irvine, California, on August 29th. So it was just a single day. I couldn't believe when I saw that it was just a single day because based off all the TikToks and reels I saw, it felt like it was a full-on three-day festival.

Vanessa 11:50

Yeah, I did not know that it was just one day. That's crazy.

Sunny 11:52

It was just one day. And I went to the Daisy Chain Fields website, and Olivia Rodrigo has a mission statement on there that she wrote, and I won't read the whole thing, but I shortened it. She wrote, Daisy Chain Fields is a music festival built on the belief that joy, community, and creativity can drive real change. It celebrates women in music, creating an inclusive space for live performances alongside education and dialogue on issues facing women and girls. Net proceeds go to nonprofits advocating for women and girls, and the festival creates real connection across generations and communities. Daisies are wild and beautiful as a chain, they are strong and unbreakable.

Vanessa 12:35

Oh, I love that.

Sunny 12:37

I know, I thought that was so sweet. The lineup this year are all women. So we have Bikini Kill, Chapel Roan, Devon again, Dye Spitz, Doechi, Eli, Garbage, Mitzke, Not for Radio, Olivia Rodrigo, Quiet Light, Rachel Chinnoriri. Rachel, I should have looked up how to say these name, so sorry.

Vanessa 12:58

I always mess, I always mess up her name too. I like her, and I can never say her nil, her last name.

Sunny 13:03

How do you say it?

Vanessa 13:04

Chinori.

unknown 13:06

Okay.

Vanessa 13:07

Well, I don't know if that's right, but that's how I said it.

Sunny 13:10

Santigold, the Breeders with special guests. Wait, the Breeders. And then they had special guests Karen O, Sarah McLaughlin, and Stevie Nicks.

Vanessa 13:19

Oh my gosh. The conflicts. How many stages were there?

Sunny 13:23

So apparently there were no conflicts. Oh. Like you could see everybody. So I guess this was just one long, a long day. Okay. But it wasn't just about the music. They had a lot of pop-up experiences. Athleta built an immersive wellness experience where you could, you know, recharge during sets. Etsy created a creative village where you could shop Olivia's official collection and you could meet the makers behind it. Brooks running, they brought shoe charms. And then something that looked super cool was Lego. They uh they stole the show with uh something called the artist's garden, where you could build your own tile and add it to a collective mural. They also had artists building Lego murals live, also Taco Bell ran Olivia's Dollhouse Inspired Live Mosque Cafe, and they had free Baja Blasts for the taking. Oh, gosh, I love it.

Vanessa 14:24

And there were so many more, right?

Sunny 14:26

I know. And there were so many more, but I'm not gonna list more of them. There were also a ton of art installations. One that stood out to me was Yoko Ono's wish tree. Attendees were able to write wishes on paper tags and then tie them to the tree. And then when the installation closes, those wishes they don't just disappear. They they travel to Iceland joining

Local Economy And Mini Roos

Sunny 14:50

the Imagine Peace Tower, which is part of Yoko's ongoing call for peace. So I thought that was really special.

Vanessa 14:57

Yeah.

Sunny 14:57

I know. Another huge part of this festival are the nonprofit partners. Um net proceeds go straight to organizations advocating for women and girls. Some of the partners are Baby to Baby, which provides diapers and formula for kids in need, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, the nation's leading black maternal health organization, Center for Reproductive Rights, uh Freeform, which is a survivor-led organization to help end gender-based violence. I don't know how to say this. Uh JIP Viego, uh, helping women and communities live healthier lives. And the last one, John Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, which advances health equity for Indigenous communities worldwide. I love all that. Yeah. Yeah. I think the the mission of the festival was clear to everybody, and that was a big pull for people. But of course, you know, everyone has their opinions. I spent way too long going through TikTok and reels, people talking about the festival. And it's so crazy how like people can have such opposite experiences at the same event.

Vanessa 16:12

I know. We've talked about this so many times. It's ridiculous.

Sunny 16:16

Yeah, and it's hard to know what really happened, you know, if you're not if you're not there.

Vanessa 16:22

Yeah. I mean, it's also just like very based on the person, you know? Like I think we've talked about it before. It's like maybe you just don't like festivals. Maybe festivals are not your scene, and everything you're complaining about is just something you learn to deal with at festivals because that's just the nature of festivals, you know?

Sunny 16:42

Right.

Vanessa 16:42

Or I don't know exactly what you're talking about that people are complaining about, but it's like some of these things that people complain about is like crowds and like lines and bathroom lines and waiting for it's like all this stuff comes with being at a festival. Territory. Yeah.

Sunny 16:58

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I think maybe for some people there's like a limit of how much they can take. Right.

Vanessa 17:06

Or they set expectations about how about how it's gonna go, and then it just doesn't turn out that way, and then it's not a good experience.

Sunny 17:14

And also, for a first-year festival, there are going to be problems.

Vanessa 17:20

For sure. For sure.

Sunny 17:21

You know, yeah. That might not be a part of a lot of people's expectations. They just think, you know, Olivia Rodrigo, and of course, she's gonna have people who have it together, which to pull off an event this big, I think she did have great people around her, but there were some cons. Clark so kindly went through and wrote out some pros and cons that he found on Reddit. So I wanted to wanted to read them to you and then we we can talk about it. Should I start with the cons or the pros?

Vanessa 17:51

Um let's do cons first so we can end on a positive.

Sunny 17:56

Okay. Cons. Transportation, very

Daisy Chain Fields Overview

Sunny 18:00

inconsistent across the board. The usual of taking forever to get out of parking lot or shuttles not being as convenient as people thought.

Vanessa 18:09

Yeah.

Sunny 18:09

Long lines everywhere for food, merch, and any experiences. Not very much shade cover anywhere, especially for ADA viewing areas. Yeah, that's not that's not good. He saw some comments of male staff and some male festival goers being shitty and laughing at artists in outfits. And it seemed like the organization from the city and police could have been better. So those are all the the bullet points we had for that.

unknown 18:39

Uh yeah.

Vanessa 18:40

I mean, some of that sounds like logistical stuff that Right. I don't know.

Sunny 18:44

I feel like at all festivals, except for outside lands, doesn't need it. But why there needs to be more shade everywhere.

Vanessa 18:51

I feel like it's it sounds like such a in LA, like southern Southern California.

Sunny 18:56

Irvine?

Vanessa 18:57

Irvine, yeah. Yeah.

Sunny 18:59

I don't know if it was mo mostly local people or people who traveled from far away, but it felt like a lot of people were not prepared for that heat in Irvine. I've only come really close to fainting one time, and it was in Irvine. So Oh no. Um, I know that heat is pretty gnarly. Pros. Great turnout for first year of a festival. Amazing idea for a festival supporting women and nonprofits that support women. Most people are talking about how incredible the crowds and attendees were. They had no overlap for set times. They also had a touch-up tent in VIP with vanities, hair and skin products, and even festival gems. The sound was good for everybody overall. Merch is super cute, awesome pins, and a very flower power protest vibe. Yeah, I mean, it sounded overall like it was a great time if you could embrace the suck.

Vanessa 20:03

Right. But I think just that heat, man, that would be my biggest con.

Sunny 20:10

Yep.

Vanessa 20:10

There's no shade.

Sunny 20:11

I saw something about I okay, so I don't know if this is true, but I saw somewhere that the exiting of the festival was a nightmare, but that somehow somebody found out that the police department did not cooperate with the plan that was set in place and agreed upon by the festival organizers and the city almost in like a protest to this event happening in uh very very red Irvine. Oh hell nah. I know. So I have no idea if that's true or not, but if that's the case, that's disgusting. Um that's putting people's safety at risk.

Vanessa 20:55

For your petty little protest.

Sunny 20:58

Right. Right. But I have no idea if that's women.

Vanessa 21:03

Like, what is this protest?

Sunny 21:05

Uh yeah, I guess. I don't know. I mean, Olivia Rodrigo is very outspoken and liberal, so I maybe just over all around values that they don't hold. Like I said though, it can't I these are just in comments, so I don't know how that person found that out or what. But I wanted to ask you what's your go-to for beating the heat? And then bigger picture, what can festivals do to protect attendees from it?

Vanessa 21:34

My go-to for beating the heat is fans. You know I love my fans, my portable fans. If you've been here since the beginning, that's like my big tip always. Fan handheld fans. The neck ones are good because you don't have to hold those.

Sunny 21:51

Yeah, not the ones that you have to like wave around all day because that's yeah.

Vanessa 21:56

Oh, yeah.

Sunny 21:59

Yeah, no, not fancy. One of those.

Vanessa 22:01

I could never have one of those because Ed would give me so much shit telling me that they are actually making me hotter because they're making me work more.

Sunny 22:08

Yeah. Yep. I do appreciate though when people have those big ones that can do the clacking because they use it to fan people in the crowd. Yeah. So when people are fanning me with them, great.

Vanessa 22:23

I just can't have one.

Sunny 22:24

Yeah. So we're not, you know, those angels that bring them to festivals, we're not saying don't bring them. We're just pointing out that using a portable handheld fan that you can charge is what really helps uh with the heat.

Vanessa 22:37

It's more efficient.

Sunny 22:38

Yeah. And then what do you think festivals can do to help with the heat? Or do you think they're doing it enough and everyone's just not doing festivals right?

Vanessa 22:46

No, I I think if you're gonna have a festival in a place that's really hot, you need to provide people with shade.

Sunny 22:52

Yeah.

Vanessa 22:52

Or options for shade. Not

Pros Cons And Heat Lessons

Vanessa 22:55

not everywhere, obviously it's not possible, but like sections where people can like go and get out of the heat for a little bit. And yeah.

Sunny 23:04

Austin City Limits had those big fans with um like water coming out. So it was like huge misters that you could walk by.

Vanessa 23:11

Yeah.

Sunny 23:12

Yeah. So I guess that's a lot of things for Olivia and her team to think about going to next year. I hope they have I hope they have another one because I love the women empowerment movement. You know?

Vanessa 23:25

Yeah, I would love to go.

Sunny 23:27

Yeah, I was gonna ask you. I was like, if you were still if you were still doing fests and in California, is this one you would want to hit up?

Vanessa 23:34

If I was if I was living in California 100%, I would consider going to this some other time, but for sure if I was living in California.

Sunny 23:44

Yeah, I mean, I thought about it. I was like, we should have been there because like we're uh uh I was gonna say women run. Does that make sense? Women led. Women led women led, yeah, podcast. So that would have been cool to be a part of that uh inaugural year.

Vanessa 24:03

I I didn't realize how like that it was so soon. Like I remember hearing about it, yeah, but for some reason I thought it was gonna be like way in the future, right? Yeah, all of a sudden it just And then all of a sudden I was like seeing it on people's stories. I was like, oh, okay. Oops, yeah, we dropped the ball.

Sunny 24:19

Also, I love that Olivia is 23 years old and champion championing champ. I can't talk today. I think that was the right word. Women's empowerment, which is awesome. Some people were also saying that this was just for popularity and things like that. I was like, she doesn't need that.

Vanessa 24:40

Right. You know, none of the people in the lineup, like none of the main headliners need that. They're big, right? They're big acts.

Sunny 24:48

Right, totally. I think that's all I have on uh Daisy Chain Field, you know, as we were not there. So I can only we can only talk about it so much, but um yeah. I feel like I'm ending a uh uh school project. And yeah.

Vanessa 25:10

Would Clark end? Yeah, Clark would totally go.

Sunny 25:13

Oh, Clark would go to anything. Oh yeah, we didn't even talk about that. How like a couple people were saying that the men that were there were not good vibes.

Vanessa 25:24

Yeah, that's annoying. Like, why are you even there? Just to be, I guess just because people are shitty, but yeah, yeah.

Sunny 25:33

Because their girlfriends drag them there.

Vanessa 25:36

No, I don't but the male staff too, like, come on. Right. Also, why do you have male staff? I don't know. No, I'm just kidding.

Sunny 25:46

I thought the same thing. Women only everywhere.

unknown 25:49

Yeah. Yeah.

Sunny 25:52

Also, I saw a clip of Olivia having everybody like think of something that really pisses them off. Oh, I saw that. Yeah, to have just everybody scream and really feel it. And it made me think back to that failed Woodstock where they also had the crowd do that, but then it ended up in a bunch of fires at fights. And it's like, who do you think that's because of? Men. Right. Like the uh women were able to express their feelings all together in a group without breaking out into fights and ruining the event. I don't know. That's just something that crossed my mind.

Vanessa 26:34

Women rule, men drool.

Sunny 26:36

Yeah. Women rule and men drool. That's the that's the whole point of this episode. No. Moral of the story, that's what

Wrap Up And Listener DMs

Sunny 26:45

I was trying to say. Okay, do you want to close this out? Sure.

Vanessa 26:51

Okay, that is it for this episode. We covered a lot of ground today. Bonnaroo is canceled next year and Olivia's Daisy Chain Fields moments. If you have feelings, thoughts, concerns about Bonaroo, we'd love to hear them. And if anyone listening was actually at Daisy Chain Fields, we would love to hear about your experience. Just drop us a DM at Festies Podcast on Instagram or TikTok. And if you liked this episode, share it with your festival crew. We would love it if you could take a moment to rate and review us. That helps the podcast get a farther reach. And don't forget to check out our free digital toolkit, which can help make your festival prep a lot easier. There is a link for that in the show notes. And for more festies content, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Festies Podcast. And we'll see you on the next one. Bye. Bye.