Farm Aid 9/18/05 Tweeter Center, Tinley Park, Ill

[TimmyB]

No lineup information yet, though mainstays are Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews.

FARM AID 2005 Presented by Silk Soymilk

Sunday, September 18, 2005 at the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park, Illinois

Farm Aid founder Willie Nelson and co-founder John Mellencamp today announced that the nation's leading family farm advocacy organization will mark its 20th anniversary by returning to Illinois--the state where it all began.

Farm Aid 2005 Presented by Silk Soymilk will urge Americans to choose food from family farms. The 20th anniversary celebration will kick off with a week of food and music events in Chicago. Pre-concert events will showcase the city's efforts to promote family farm food by linking rural and urban communities. The events will culminate with Farm Aid's 20th anniversary all-star fundraising concert to take place on Sept. 18 at the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park, IL.

[secondtube]

i'm sure you'll be able to give us a full, detailed report...

i assume your going again?

[TimmyB]

i'm sure you'll be able to give us a full, detailed report...

i assume your going again?

I hope that you are assuming correctly.

Though there are a lot of huge concerts this fall like Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and U2. As well as if Cream is coming to MSG in NYC and nowhere else I'll have to go there and I don't know if I can swing both.

Hopefully I'll know the lineup before this Farm Aid goes on sale, as they often just have the above four guys on the bill by the onsale date.

[TimmyB]

Looks like Wilco is on the bill, which is a big plus for me. Wilco were at my first Farm Aid in 1998 at the same venue as this year as well as Phish, it was still my favorite of the six I have attended.

Hopefully this year being the twentieth anniversary can match it or even surpass it.

From www.chicagotribune.com

Farm Aid returns to Chicago to celebrate 20th anniversary

By Greg Kot

Tribune music critic

Published July 11, 2005

Farm Aid will move to Chicago for a weeklong series of events and concerts to mark its 20th anniversary in September, promoters confirmed over the weekend.

The capstone of the celebration will be announced Monday at a news conference in Grant Park: a Sept. 18 concert at Tweeter Center in Tinley Park headlined by festival mainstays Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews.

In an interview Saturday, Mellencamp also said that at least one other band has already been confirmed for the lineup. "Wilco is playing," he said.

Tickets for the annual concert, which has helped Farm Aid raise $27 million for family farms, will go on sale July 30 at a still-to-be-determined price. More performers are expected to be announced in coming weeks.

"It's my job to go out and grovel," Mellencamp said with a laugh. "I'm putting together a list of bands and I'll be making some calls."

Organizers also are working with the City of Chicago to plan a series of events in the days preceding the concert. These will include a county fair-style educational event Sept. 17 at Garfield Park Conservatory, and also may include smaller shows by major artists at various clubs, performances at farmers markets, school educational events and a film festival.

"My tour is over the week before Farm Aid, so I may just come up to Chicago and play on the street corner again," said Mellencamp, referring to his free street-busking concert in Daley Plaza in 2000.

The singer said he lobbied to have the 20th anniversary concert in New York because Farm Aid hadn't played there before.

"There was quite a bit of discussion, and to be really honest, Chicago was my second choice," said Mellencamp, who continues to make his home in Indiana. "But everybody else wanted Chicago, because we'd played there before, it had been successful, and the venue is big. I love Chicago. For me, it is home."

Farm Aid rolled out in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, and it is expected that Farm Aid week festivities this year would kick off in the downstate community before moving to Chicago the rest of the week.

"We're coming to Chicago because the city is a shining example of urban commitment to family farming," said Farm Aid's executive director, Carolyn Mugar. Mayor Richard Daley "has shown extraordinary commitment to family farming by creating an infrastructure to support it."

She cited the city's Department of the Environment and ongoing farmers market programming as aiding the Farm Aid cause. "And it'll be nice to bring it full circle because Farm Aid began there [in Illinois] 20 years ago."

Mellencamp said the first Farm Aid began in an atmosphere of "optimism and idealism."

"I had no inkling when we started that we'd be having a 20th anniversary," he said. "We were very excited and thought we were going to be able to correct a lot of things. Now I'm not sure Farm Aid has had any effect on policy, but it has helped a lot of individuals. It's worth doing for that reason."