Willie Nelson's Farm Aid is returning to the Midwest, where it has been helping small farms since 1985. The 30th anniversary installment of the musical fundraiser and ecological rally will be held Sept. 19 at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in downtown Chicago.
The lineup announced today of course includes Willie's original partners in the organization, Neil Young and John Mellencamp, along with their adopted fourth wheel Dave Matthews. The long list of guests this year includes Imagine Dragons, Jack Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Mavis Staples, Old Crow Medicine Show, Holly Williams (Hank Sr.'s granddaughter), Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (Willie's son), Insects vs Robots and Blackwood Quartet.
Tickets for Farm Aid 30 go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. CDT and range from $49.50 to $189.50. They can be bought via LiveNation.com or 1-800-745-3000. Click here to learn more about the concert and Farm Aid's year-round efforts.
One interesting twist this year: Young has been using Lukas Nelson's group as his backing band on tour this summer and made an album with them called "The Monsanto Years," whose songs hit on many of the environmental and corporate-greed themes that are part of Farm Aid's topical hot spots. Launched in 1985 from comments Bob Dylan made at Live Aid ("Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America"), Farm Aid has raised more than $48 million since then to assist and promote family farms, encourage organic practices and launch the Good Food Movement.
"At Farm Aid 30, we'll celebrate the impact we've had and rally our supporters for the work ahead," Willie said in a press release for the event.
