The Irvine City Council has made its choice: PSQ Productions gets to continue running Great Park Live, while the city moves forward with a management arrangement that its supporters say protects Irvine from the allegedly onerous demands of Live Nation.
There is just one delicious little problem.
One of the biggest events ever booked at Great Park Live—the Daisy Chain Fields Festival—is being produced by C3 Presents, a company owned by Live Nation. The show sold out 45,000 tickets in 45 minutes.
So Irvine said “no” to Live Nation, only to discover that Live Nation can apparently walk through the back door wearing a C3 Presents nametag.
That is what makes the city’s decision to stick with PSQ so fascinating.
PSQ has experience running Great Park Live. The city selected PSQ for the temporary amphitheater in 2024, and PSQ is clearly capable of operating the venue. The city’s own documents identify PSQ as responsible for setting up and operating the temporary amphitheater.
But operating a venue and puttng butts in seats are two very different businesses.
And that distinction is about to become impossible to ignore.
The city’s upcoming Daisy Chain Fields festival is a spectacular example. Olivia Rodrigo’s August 29 festival features Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski, Garbage, Bikini Kill, The Breeders, KATSEYE, Santigold, Sarah McLachlan and—yes—Stevie Nicks. It is a genuine Tier 1 entertainment lineup. And who is producing it? 3 Presents. And there’s potential this festival can become an annual event.
C3 isn’t some obscure independent promoter that accidentally wandered into Irvine. It is one of the premier festival producers in the country, responsible for events such as Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza, and Live Nation has owned an interest in C3 since 2014. The very company Irvine’s current political leadership didn’t want running the venue is demonstrating—through its affiliated festival operation—exactly what a major entertainment promoter can bring to Great Park.
That should make some council members uncomfortable. I hope it does.
Because the PSQ schedule has too often looked like a retirement party with a sound system. Great Park Live’s current calendar includes Pacific Symphony programs, an ABBA tribute, Total Vibez Live, Rise Against and other events. There is nothing wrong with those performers. But if Irvine wants Great Park to become a regional entertainment destination, the city needs more than nostalgia acts and tribute bands. Irvine needs artists people will drive from Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and beyond to see.
Daisy Chain proves the market exists. And if all goes well, there will be more Daisy Chain events. And here’s where the PSQ victory lap could get particularly interesting.
Don’t be surprised if, after Daisy Chain becomes a success, Great Park Live’s social media feeds and promotional videos suddenly become filled with glossy footage of the festival, the Great Park stage and screaming crowds. PSQ may very well be tempted to use that content to suggest that its stewardship of Great Park Live was responsible for bringing this level of entertainment to Irvine.
That would be quite a trick. And it wouldn’t be true.
Because Daisy Chain was founded by Olivia Rodrigo and produced by C3 Presents—not PSQ. If anything, Daisy Chain demonstrates that Irvine can attract major entertainment when a major entertainment company is involved. That should lead to a very simple question for the City Council:
Why not negotiate with Live Nation again? The city should not simply hand the keys to Live Nation on whatever terms Live Nation previously demanded. If the original proposal was too favorable to the promoter, negotiate harder. Demand protections for Irvine. Establish performance requirements. Protect city revenues. Require transparency. Create guarantees for local programming. Put reasonable safeguards into the contract. But don’t confuse negotiating with Live Nation with rejecting Live Nation. Those are two entirely different things.
Great Park is too important—and too expensive—to become a comfortable little venue for acts whose glory days occurred when MTV actually played music videos. Daisy Chain offers Irvine a preview of what Great Park could become: nationally significant artists, major festivals, enormous audiences and events that give people a reason to visit Irvine rather than merely pass through it.
PSQ can operate a venue. But Irvine needs a partner that can fill one. The City Council should take another look at Live Nation—not with a blank check, but with a better contract. Because if Daisy Chain succeeds, the lesson shouldn’t be that Irvine made the right choice by rejecting Live Nation. The lesson should be that Irvine needs the best entertainment partners it can get—and sometimes the name on the contract matters less than the people who can actually put 45,000 people in the seats. I believe LiveNation wants to be a part of the Great Park’s live entertainment future. Time for the city to make some choices about what it has to have and what is can live with.
And before we sign off here, looks like C3 is producing another Great Park festival. “For You Fest” Nov. 14-15, 2026.
Tix on sale now here:
https://www.foryoufestival.com/
See list of all C3 festivals worldwide here, including Ohana Fest (Eddie Vedder curated), Doheny State Beach Sept. 25-27. Pearl Jam is headliner this year.
https://www.c3presents.com/festivals
Ohana link here:
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