Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp Lead Lineup For Farm Aid 2021

Ebet Roberts / Redferns – Farm Fresh
Willie Nelson performs at Farm Aid 2011 in Kansas City.

Farm Aid, the longstanding festival benefitting family farmers, announced its physical return Tuesday.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds top the bill for the concert, which is set for Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Conn., on Sept. 25.

The lineup also includes Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Bettye LaVette, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Allison Russell, Particle Kid and Ian Mellencamp.

Presale tickets for Farm Aid 2021 become available on July 21 at 10 a.m. ET, and the general on sale begins 48 hours later.

“The experience of the past 18 months has reminded us how much we need each other,” Farm Aid president and founder Willie Nelson said in a statement. “I’m so glad we can come together again at Farm Aid 2021. When we combine music, family farmers and good food, we have the power to grow the kind of agriculture that strengthens all of us.”

Xfinity Theatre previously hosted Farm Aid in 2018, selling 22,967 tickets and grossing $1.82 million, and will become the fourth to host the event more than once since its launch in 1985. Pennsylvania’s The Pavilion at Star Lake, formerly known as Post-Gazette Pavilion and KeyBan Pavilion, hosted Farm Aid in 2002 and 2017, while two venues have hosted it three times: Illinois’ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, formerly known as Tweeter Center and First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, in 1997, 1998 and 2005, and Virginia’s Jiffy Lube Live, formerly known as Nissan Pavilion, in 1999, 2000, and 2016.

Farm Aid was most recently physically held at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wis., in September 2019, and like so many other events, went digital in 2020, with performers including Nelson, Young, Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Stapleton and Brandi Carlile.

Farm Aid has raised more than $60 million since its inception.

This year’s Farm Aid will come amid Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival, the country legend’s recurring traveling revue, which will hit 14 stops from August 22 to October 24. The lineup, announced by Nelson in late May, varies from night to night, but Gov’t Mule, Simpson and Price are among the artists who will play several of the tour’s dates.