Willie Nelson and Neil Young highlight 40th Farm Aid concert
[September 20, 2025]
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Farm Aid — the annual fundraising concerts launched
by Willie Nelson,Neil Young and John Mellencamp during the farm crisis
of the 1980s — celebrates its 40th anniversary on Saturday in
Minneapolis.
The star-studded festivals are still raising public awareness of the
challenges facing family farmers, and assisting struggling producers
connect with help.
Nelson is now 92,Young is 79 and Mellencamp is 73, but they're still
going strong. Organizers announced Wednesday that Minnesota native Bob
Dylan will be joining them. Others taking the stage at the University of
Minnesota's football stadium will include Dave Matthews,Margo
Price,Kenny Chesney,Wynonna Judd, and Nathaniel Rateliff.
This year’s concert comes at a worrying time for American farmers. Farm
profitability has been falling. Crop prices are low while production
costs are rising. And the Trump administration’s trade wars have added
to the insecurity. China has not bought any of the 2025 U.S. soybean
crop so far and has turned to America's competitors, such as Brazil, to
meet its needs.
Nelson saves the day
A labor dispute nearly derailed the festival this year. Organizers said
they would not cross the picket lines of striking teamster service
workers at the university, saying “the farm and labor movements are
inseparable.” Nelson got on the phone with Gov. Tim Walz. The university
and union reached a deal late last week.
“The Governor knows how important this event is to farmers and farm
country,” Walz spokesperson Claire Lancaster said. “He worked with all
parties involved, including Willie Nelson, to find a solution.”
Farm Aid is thrilled that the show will go on.
“For four decades, Farm Aid has stood with farmers and workers,”
organizers said in a statement that called the agreement “a reminder of
what can be achieved when people come together in the spirit of fairness
and solidarity.”
CNN will carry five hours of programming from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. CDT,
featuring live performances by Nelson, Young, Mellencamp, Dylan,
Matthews and Price. CNN will also stream it live on CNN.com, and on its
apps without requiring a cable login. Sirius XM will carry it on
satellite radio starting at noon CDT. Beginning at 11:30 a.m. CDT, it
will also stream on the nugs live music platform and YouTube channel,
and at FarmAid.org and on Farm Aid's YouTube channel.
Farm Aid's mission
This will be the ninth Farm Aid for Rateliff, whose music combines rock,
soul, country, gospel, folk and Americana. He said he joined because he
has long felt a connection to farming and the land.
“I grew up in rural Missouri, and grew up with agriculture around me,
and we didn’t have much money as a family,” Rateliff recalled in an
interview. “So we had a huge one-acre garden, and my mom canned a lot of
stuff, and my dad and I would hunt squirrel and rabbit and deer and
whatever else we could eat.”
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Willie Nelson performs at Farm Aid 30 in Chicago on Sept. 19, 2015.
(Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP, File)
 Jennifer Fahy, Farm Aid’s
co-executive director, said the founders never expected 40 years ago
that they would be able to raise enough money to pay off all the
debts and solve all the other problems of struggling farmers. She
said their bigger hope was to foster systemic solutions.
“Farm Aid was kind of the first rallying point for farmers
publicly,” Fahy recalled. “It was the first time that farmers would
reach out and call a number.”
How Farm Aid helps
That hotline — 1-800-FARM-AID (1-800-327-6243) — was one of their
first initiatives. Operators mostly come from agricultural
backgrounds. Fahy said they can help with immediate needs, then
connect farmers with other resources, such as financial and business
counseling, legal advice or mental health support, or help them
navigate federal farm programs.
While emergency grants aren’t the main focus of Farm Aid — they’re
$500 per farmer and totaled just around $50,000 last year — Fahy
said the money may help a family in financial straits buy groceries
or keep the heat on in a barn while they seek longer-term solutions.
Farm Aid has raised over $85 million over the years, making it one
of the largest in a line of famed benefit concert series.
It awarded grants totaling just over $1 million in 2023, mostly to
allied groups across the country, including the Missouri Rural
Crisis Center that was launched with the help of a $10,000 grant.
Farm Aid also works with grassroots groups, such as the Land
Stewardship Program in Minnesota, to organize rural communities,
help maintain local control, and train new farmers.
Bridging the political divide
Rateliff said he keeps coming back to Farm Aid because not enough
has changed. People are still fighting against the concentration of
agriculture among bigger and bigger producers, he said. But he said
music bridges political differences. He said his own fans include
people who voted for Bernie Sanders, a self-named democratic
socialist, and for President Donald Trump.
“What music has the ability to do is bring people together — to
create commonality in a shared human experience — so that we all can
examine ourselves together and see how alike we are,” Rateliff said.
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