Music

A timeline history of 40 years of Farm Aid

Bob Dylan said it. Willie Nelson did it. Four decades later, a lot of money and big names have been enlisted to help U.S. farmers via music.

By Chris Riemenschneider

The Minnesota Star Tribune

September 16, 2025 at 11:00AM

Neil Young, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp took the stage together at the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 in Champaign, Ill., the first of 39 years (and counting) the three Rock & Roll Hall of Famers appeared at the event they co-organized. (UPI)

July 13, 1985: At the end of the Live Aid mega-concert in Philadelphia, Bob Dylan suggests some of the famine-relief money should go to “our own farmers right here in America.” Willie Nelson was listening.

Sept. 22, 1985: Nelson hosts the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Ill., with co-organizers John Mellencamp and Neil Young and televised performances by Dylan, Billy Joel, Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn, Tom Petty, B.B. King and Van Halen (their first gig with Sammy Hagar). About $9 million was raised, and 80,000 people attended.

After sparking the idea, Bob Dylan performed with Willie Nelson at the first Farm Aid concert in 1985. (David Breslauer/The Associated Press)

July 4, 1986: Clearly not a one-and-done kind of guy, Willie converted his annual Fourth of July Picnic in Texas into Farm Aid II with Bon Jovi, the Beach Boys, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, Minnesota’s Paul Metsa and (live via satellite) the Grateful Dead with Dylan.

April 24, 1993: The nearest a previous Farm Aid concert has come to Minnesota, Year Six was held at Iowa State University’s football stadium in Ames with a lineup including Johnny Cash, Ringo Starr, Bryan Adams and Minnesota’s Jayhawks.

Oct. 1, 1995: The 10th edition in Louisville, Ky., drew its biggest crowd since the first, with 47,000 people there to watch Hootie & the Blowfish and the Dave Matthews Band, whose frontman would sign on as a Farm Aid board member in 2001.

August 1999: In Minnesota to perform at Grand Casino Hinckley, Nelson met with Gov. Jesse Ventura to talk governmental farm policies (which they differed on) and the chance of hosting a Farm Aid concert at the Metrodome (which never happened).

Sept. 12, 1999: In an effort to heighten the cause and lobbying efforts with federal legislators, Farm Aid was held for the first of three times near Washington, D.C.

Oct. 2, 2010: The 25th anniversary installment at Milwaukee’s Miller Park featured Kenny Chesney, Norah Jones, Jeff Tweedy and the BoDeans.

April 11, 2020: Near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, homebound performers including Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Raitt and all the regulars put on a livestream concert.

Now a Farm Aid board member, Margo Price performed at last year's concert in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Brian Bruner)

2021: Alt-country singer Margo Price, whose family lost its Illinois farm in the 1980s, joined Farm Aid’s board of directors as the first female artist to do so, but not its first woman (following Willie’s wife Annie Nelson).

Sept. 20, 2025: Farm Aid is coming to Minnesota for the first time, touting its record of raising more than $85 million on behalf of independent farmers and environmentally friendly agriculture programs over 39 years — but pledging there’s more work to be done.

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001. The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.