WISCONSIN (CelebrityAccess) – Farm Aid has announced that its 34th annual benefit concert will take place September 21 at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin.
Festival co-founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp will all perform, as will Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Bonnie Raitt, Margo Price, Tanya Tucker, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Jamey Johnson, Brothers Osborne, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Yola and Particle Kid among others.
Farm Aid was last held in Wisconsin in 2010 at Miller Park, for the organization’s 25th anniversary. The return to the Dairy State is in part a response to Wisconsin’s dairy farm crisis. The state’s dairy industry generates a whopping $43.4 billion each year, according to Farm Aid, however, declining dairy prices led to the loss of nearly 700 dairy farms in 2018 alone.
“With devastating weather, low prices and harmful farm and trade policies, America’s family farmers are facing immense challenges to hold on to their farms. It’s not right… family farmers are essential for all of us,” Nelson said in a statement released Tuesday (July 9).“By bringing our festival to the heart of the struggle, we will stand side by side with farmers. At Farm Aid 2019, we’ll highlight solutions and show our support for family farmers’ contributions to our health, economy and environment.”
Mellencamp added: “We’re bringing Farm Aid to the heartland because we need to show the country what’s happening to the people who grow our food and take care of our soil and water. We want family farmers to know that we won’t let them go down without a fight. And neither should you — farmers need us, and we need farmers.”
Matthews said: “Everybody in this country should have access to good food. And the people produce the best food — our family farmers — should be able to produce it without being afraid of going hungry themselves because they can’t make ends meet. These are the values that bring Farm Aid to Wisconsin this year.”
Beyond the music, Farm Aid will host a media event featuring select artists, farmers and advocates, before the first act performs September 21. An on-site “Homegrown Village” will feature presentations with artists and farmers as well as educational demonstrations on how to do things like make cheese, grow hemp and milk a cow. Additionally, all of the concessions will be sourced from family farms, and will be served with compostable service ware.
Nelson, Mellencamp and Young organized the first Farm Aid festival in 1985 to help combat a wave of foreclosures that were pushing family farmers off their land. Since then, the nonprofit has raised more than $50 million for programs that support family farmers in the United States.
Tickets for Farm Aid 2019 go on sale July 12 at 10 a.m. CT via livenation.com.
