At the beginning of summer, Olivia Rodrigo announced her inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival: a one-day event which will take place in Irvine, California on 29th August, acting as a final curtain to festival season. The all-female line-up boasts heavyweights including Chappell Roan, Stevie Nicks and Katseye, alongside rising stars such as Rachel Chinouriri and Quiet Light. In line with this, all net profits will be donated to organisations supporting and advocating for women and girls, and interwoven with the performances will be education resources, community-led art experiences and fan pop-ups centred around female rights and empowerment. 

Daisy Chain Fields’ refreshing approach to the festival formula prompted SEED CLUB to reflect on the evolution, and creeping corporate takeover, of these experiences. And ultimately, how brands can bolster cultural events without taking the spotlight away from why people are actually there. 

Brand partners include Depop, Etsy, Taco Bell and Verizon

Sophia Epstein shared how surreal it’s been to watch once indie, grassroots festivals convert into corporate entities: "Reading & Leeds festival become 'Pepsi presents Reading & Leeds', 'Debenhams presents Camp Bestival', 'Klarna presents Latitude', 'Audi presents Wilderness', all the logos incorporated into the festival’s logo.” The identities of these events defined by sponsorship rather than spirit. 

Looking back on the early days of brands’ involvement in the festival circuit, both Epstein and fellow SEED CLUBBER, Andy McAllister outlined how the presence of telecom brands served a truly useful function. For example, McAllister recalls his experience of Orange at Glastonbury 2000, which installed a phone charging station that was open to anyone, not just those with an Orange SIM. “This was in the days when Orange were still owned by Hutchison Whampoa,” McAllister explains, “and had all these cool extra touches, like fish tanks in their retail shops, and a feng shui consultant who made sure all the spaces had positive energy, before the nightmare of mergers and takeovers that led to it becoming EE.” The experience wasn't shoe-horned or overpowering, it blended in while acting as infrastructure to support the existing ethos of the festival.

In 2009, Orange launched a Glastonbury app which provided users with stage times and the ability to personalise their own artist schedule

Over the years, Glastonbury has continued to resist being dominated by brand sponsors, instead hand-picking partners who align with their unique character, such as Barbour, Land Rover and Co-op. But their collaboration with telecom companies is still crucial to prevent Worthy Farm from becoming a dead zone. Musing on what this means for brands, Epstein considered, “Maybe it hinges on usefulness rather than attempting to show how ‘cool’ you are.” Offering another example of this strategy, she pointed to skincare brand CeraVe at this year’s Cross the Tracks, which handed out free suncream to attendees. It was something considered and relevant, which she says “almost made up for the huge signage”. 

But for McAllister, Heineken’s sponsorship of Sonar Lisboa last year did not make up for the huge signage.