Alabama Shakes, Sturgill Simpson To Headline Farm Aid

Farm Aid is coming to Bristow, Virginia’s Jiffy Lube Live on September 17th, with Alabama Shakes, Sturgill Simpson and Jamey Johnson joining Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews on the bill.  Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Carlene Carter will also be performing at the annual event. Tickets – which range in price from $49.50 to $189.50 – will go on sale Monday, July 27th at 10 a.m EDT.

“We’ve been fighting for family farmers for a long time, and that fight isn’t over,” said John Mellencamp in a statement. “At Farm Aid 2016, we’ll come together to stand up to the handful of corporations that control our food system. If you want a better world, it starts with you.”

Organizers first staged Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois in September 1985 and have held the event nearly every year since, with everyone from Bob Dylan to Jack White to Guns N’ Roses donating their time to help struggling family farmers. This year’s event will mark the third time it’s been held at the amphitheater in Bristow, Virginia. (It was staged there in 1999 and 2000 when the venue was known as the Nissan Pavilion.)

“Folks are educating themselves about where and how food is grown — they’re hungry for the truth,” Nelson says in a statement. “Family farmers bring us good food, protect our soil and water and strengthen our country. The Farm Aid concert is a day for us to honor that truth and keep working for family farmers.”

Matthews will perform an acoustic set with guitarist Tim Reynolds, while Young will be backed by Promise of the Real, a collaboration that began at Farm Aid in 2014 when he invited Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah to join him on “Rockin’ In The Free World.”