Willie Nelson speaking at the Farm Aid announcement
Photo: Craig Dalton
Today in Chicago, in the middle of a City of Chicago vegetable garden that helps homeless food shelters, founders of Farm Aid Willie Nelson and John Cougar Mellencamp announced that the 20th Anniversary Farm Aid Concert will be held at the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park, Ill. on September 18, 2005. Slated to appear on the all-star bill are Nelson, Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews and “many more surprises to be announced.”
“It’s a domino effect: For every five family farms that go under, another business in town fails. Then those folks have to come into the city and find jobs that are already hard to find. It effects everybody,” said Nelson. Mellencamp said, “Farm Aid has helped a lot of individuals, and right down to the individual level, we’ve affected things. We haven’t been able to change how the government thinks and acts, but we’re helping out a lot of people one on one where it really counts.”
John Mellencamp addresses the crowd, while Willie Nelson looks on
Photo: Craig Dalton
The Tweeter Center is an outdoor music festival arena just outside of Chicago. Jam Productions of Chicago will be handling promotion/production, and the show is expected to be broadcast internationally by major cable networks. The mission of Farm Aid is to keep family farmers on their land. For more information go to www.farmaid.org.
