Daisy Chain Fields Festival Debacle | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:01 Speaker 1: Um, okay. Anyway, so that's the latest on him. Let's see. Throat's holding up. Okay. For the moment. Uh, also from digital music, news.com, Olivia Rodrigo, who apparently, uh, has this festival, Daisy chain fields festival, uh, has gone into damage control after vendors say they were not paid. Um, Festivals, you know, we talk about festivals a lot on the show because whenever one of our guests mentions that they've been playing festivals or that they have festivals coming up that they're going to be playing, I tell everybody, Festivals are the best opportunity you could ask for, because not only is it a chance to get you in front of audiences, large audiences that would not otherwise have seen you or know of you, and you can really expand your fan base, but also the connections that you make at festivals, the people you meet backstage at every level of the business.

0:54 Speaker 1: It's the best networking opportunity you could ask for. The thing about festivals, though, is, and we've talked about, this has come up on the show before, too, what was it, the guys from Legion of Solace, when they were here, they were talking about the Blue Ridge Rock Festival, is that what it was, where they had a very negative experience, or there was a country festival a couple of years ago where they tried to put this huge festival together in just a couple of months, and the whole thing kind of fell apart at the last minute.

1:22 Speaker 1: Festivals can be very difficult in terms of logistics, and actually turning a profit. And there's a lot of risk. The concert promotion, the business of concert promotion, is inherently very risky. Concert promoters lose money all the time. And I feel for the lower and mid-size, mid-level promoters who really struggle with that. I've seen a lot of that up close and even experienced a little bit of it. Um, I don't feel sorry for live nation when they lose money on something because they're live nation, whatever, who cares?

2:01 Speaker 1: But, but I do feel, you know, I, I, I do feel something for anybody who's trying to do a festival and something goes wrong and you end up losing money. It sucks. Um, but apparently this went very wrong. It says here, at least two vendors claim that Olivia Rodrigo's Live Nation-produced Daisy Chain Fields Festival not only failed to pay them, but also issued costly fees. Let me take a gulp of water here. Olivia Rodrigo's inaugural Daisy Chain Fields Festival, so this was the first one that explains why I haven't heard of it, was a major success with its charitable focus on reproductive rights, fighting gender-based violence, and its all-woman lineup.

2:47 Speaker 1: But at least two vendors alleged they suffered poor working conditions, costly fees, and late payments. Both vendors have now confirmed that they have received their payments since raising the issue on social media. Well, that's good. At least they got their money. Mary Chacon Owner of Ugly Oats Kitchen, one of the vendors who had not been paid, said, quote, Two Daisy Chain Fields executives reached out to me to discuss our experience. They were kind, apologetic, and genuinely interested in addressing our issues.

3:22 Speaker 1: They are looking to implement changes to improve the experiences of vendors next year, unquote. Okay, that sounds positive. But just a day before, Chaconne took to Instagram to share her company's festival experience. explaining that their point of contact for the event, DLS Events, had only provided piecemeal information on setup, didn't tell them about a free staff food area, and said the festival would fine them if they ran out of food for guests. Now, I want to stop on that for a moment. Because that is a common tale.

4:05 Speaker 1: Whenever we talk about things going wrong at festivals, and again, you know, because I know a lot of industry, music industry people listen to the show, so you'll know this. What inevitably almost always comes up when we talk about things going wrong at festivals? Communication. Communication sucks. That's, again, and, you know, I keep thinking about this when the guys, Bruce and Malcolm, from Legion of Solace were here the last time for Swarmy Fest. They were talking about that was their experience at the Blue Ridge.

4:37 Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact name. Blue Ridge Rock, Blue Ridge Mountain Rock Festival thing. The communication was just terrible. You know, there was a lot of information that the promoters never shared with them that they should have known because they were sponsors of the event. Because again, Legion of Solace, it sounds like the name of a band, but it's not the name of a band. It's the name of a promotional company. And, um, they were one of the sponsors of the event and there was a lot of things that they were not told so that they would like to have known.

5:12 Speaker 1: Uh, but that is such a common problem. And again, it's, it's, it happens with festivals because first of all, human beings in general, aren't that great at communication. Um, but, uh, And you've got creative types trying to do business. You've got to have business people doing business and letting the creative people do the creative part. There's a lot that can go wrong when art meets commerce. But communication, communication breaking down is not only is it super common, but it's probably the number one origin point of everything else that goes wrong.

5:53 Speaker 1: Not just at a festival, but in life.

5:55 Speaker 2: Yeah.

5:56 Speaker 1: Right? Miscommunications. It's what causes a conflict and misunderstandings and everything that goes wrong in life. So, so I guess what I'm saying is, and I hadn't planned on making this point, but it, it just seems so salient. So I'll go ahead and say it. Uh, festivals are a microcosm of life. There you go. There you go. The pearl of wisdom. such that I should just stop the show right there. There's nothing I can say after that that will be smarter or wiser than what I just said. Festivals are a microcosm of life.

6:33 Speaker 1: Well, maybe not. What did I say to Ricky Mapleton last week when he was here that he really liked? I said, everything is all things and all things are everything. And, you know, that resonated with him. Okay, so getting back to this, So this company, this vendor, Ugly Oats, what was it? Ugly Oats something. Ugly Oats. Ugly Oats Kitchen, which is a fun name. They're one of the vendors. Let me reread this paragraph. Chacon took to Instagram to share her company's festival experience, explaining that their point of content of contact for the event, rather DLS events, it only provided piecemeal information on setup.

7:17 Speaker 1: Didn't tell them about a free staff food area and said the festival would find them if they ran out of food for guests. She explained quote, ugly oats is a micro bakery run out of my apartment. I, as a mom investing my own money, have no extra funds to, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to be present at a historic feminist event, unquote. Yeah, that's a thing, too. If you are running a festival, you don't want to be pushing your vendors around, threatening them, we're going to fine you if you run out of food and stuff like that.

7:58 Speaker 1: Don't do that. That's not necessary. It's not as though... It's not as though the vendor is showing up there being like, you know, hopefully we brought enough food, but if not, what's it matter? They want to show up prepared because they want to make a good impression. They're trying to expand their customer base by being a... It's the same reason the artists are there performing. The artists are there to expand their fan bases. The vendors are there to expand their customer bases. It's not like they're showing up like, if we run out of food, who cares?

8:36 Speaker 1: No, they're there to make money and build their businesses. Why would you threaten them like, we're going to fine you if you run out of food?

8:48 Speaker 1: GTFO with that. That's not cool.

8:51 Speaker 2: It says here, the custom fortune cookie company, Por Suerte, which I'm sure I didn't pronounce correctly, which is the other....

9:05 Speaker 1: Vendor that reported payment issues and a less than ideal experience at the festival also shared an update confirming that executives from daisy chain fields had reached out to them Quote, DCF organizers were very receptive to feedback, unquote, they wrote, noting that they had since been paid in full. Now that, okay, so credit for that. You know, they didn't try to blow it off. They didn't try to ignore it. They dealt with it. Obviously, it should have been handled correctly the first time, like anything, but they did handle it.

9:36 Speaker 1: After the event, Olivia Rodrigo shared on social media that Daisy Chain Fields was, quote, the greatest joy of my career and that the event felt like a collective hope that things can get better and a reminder of how much we really care about people at the end of the day, unquote. So not a terrible story. I mean, obviously things went wrong, but it was the first one of the Daisy Chain Fields Festival. Now, if a year from now we're hearing horror stories about the second one, then we might say, well, you know, get it together.

10:07 Speaker 1: But honestly, for the first year of that festival, it sounds like overall things weren't awful. And hopefully everyone learned something.