NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA – SEPTEMBER 23: Special guest Bob Dylan performs in concert during Farm Aid at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on September 23, 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Farm Aid 40, featuring such music icons as Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in a fundraising concert for America’s farmers, is Saturday.
The first Farm Aid event was held on Sept. 22, 1985, in Champaign, Ill., in an all-star lineup that featured Nelson, Dylan, Young Mellencamp. Now, 40 years later, the music legends will return for the event, which also includes several other music luminaries including Wynonna Judd, Kenny Chesney, Margo Price and Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds.
Farm Aid 40 is staging for the first time in Minneapolis, at Huntington Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus.
“For 40 years, Farm Aid and our partners have stood with farmers, supporting them to stay on their land even when corporate power, bad policies and broken promises make it harder to keep going,” Nelson said in a statement on the Farm Aid website. “This year, we’re proud to bring Farm Aid to Minnesota to celebrate the farmers who sustain us and to fight for a food system that works for all of us. Family farmers aren’t backing down, and neither are we.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 21: (L – R) Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Dave Matthews and Margo Price on stage during Farm Aid 2024 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on September 21, 2024 in Saratoga Springs, New York. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Farm Aid 40 will stream live in its entirety, beginning with a press conference at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT on the Farm Aid YouTube channel (embedded below) and on the event’s website. The first act, the Wisdom Indian Dancers, begins at 1:30 a.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT. The group will be followed by several more artists throughout the afternoon, including Wynonna Judd, Trampled by Turtles, Steve Earle and Lukas Nelson and friends.
On cable and satellite, CNN will begin a live broadcast of Farm Aid 40 beginning at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT with music sets by Billy Strings, Kenny Chesney, Morgan Price, Matthews & Reynolds, John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts and Willie Nelson and Family.
In addition, the event will be streaming at the same time on CNN.com and CNN’s apps with no cable provider log-in information needed.
Farm Aid 40 Is A Homecoming Concert For Bob Dylan
The latest artist to join Farm Aid 40’s lineup is legendary singer-songwriter-musician Bob Dylan, who was born in Duluth, Minn., and raised in nearby Hibbing.
The folk and rock great’s start in the music business in the early 1960s was chronicled in the 2024 Oscar-nominated biopic A Complete Unknown, which stars Timothée Chalamet as Dylan.
While the majority of scenes in the film took place in New York City, the film made references to his student years at the University of Minnesota, where Farm Aid is being held on Saturday. During his press tour for A Complete Unknown in December of 2024, one of Chalamet’s press stops was at Dylan’s college stomping grounds.
Since the first Farm Aid event in 1985 — which Dylan played at — the organization has raised $85 million to aid the nation’s farmers, according to CNN.
Farm Aid 40 gets underway at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT on the Farm Aid YouTube channel and Website. CNN will begin its live coverage of the event on cable and on streaming on CNN.com and the CNN streaming apps at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.