Annual agricultural fundraiser Farm Aid takes place today, Saturday, September 21st, 2024, at Saratoga Springs, NY’s Broadview Stage at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Those who aren’t able to attend the event in person can tune in to a livestream of the entire day’s festivities via nugs.net.
Tune in below throughout the day to watch performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds), and Margo Price, as well as Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson with The Travelin’ McCourys, Charley Crockett, and more.
This marks Farm Aid’s third appearance in New York and second edition in Saratoga Springs. In 2007, the benefit concert made its Empire State debut at Randall’s Island Park in New York City, followed by a trip to SPAC in 2013. “We’re energized to be back in New York,” Farm Aid president and founder Willie Nelson said in a statement. “The farmers here have always found ways to innovate and contribute to their communities, even as they deal with uncertainties, extreme weather, and policies that favor corporations over people. Farmers need us to stand with them as they work to grow our future.”
According to a Farm Aid press release which cites the 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture Census, New York state has lost 3,000 of its 33,000 farms between 2017 and 2022. These local producers face new issues of rising production and labor costs, consolidation, and abnormal weather patterns. Though Wisconsin is officially known as the Dairy State, New York has almost 3,600 dairy farms that produce 15.7 billion pounds of milk each year, making New York the country’s fifth largest dairy state.
Last year’s Farm Aid yielded some major surprise guests, with unannounced appearances by Sturgill Simpson and Bob Dylan. Country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson made his first onstage appearance in two years when he came out to jam with Bob Weir & Wolf Bros and Margo Price—all of whom played together again four months later at the Grateful Dead-centric Dead Ahead festival in Mexico. Dylan’s surprise set with The Heartbreakers was another sign of things to come, as the Nobel Prize-winning singer-songwriter is on the road this summer with Willie Nelson’s traveling Outlaw Festival tour. Revisit Live For Live Music‘s full recap of Farm Aid 2023 here.
Watch the free Farm Aid 2024 livestream via the player below.
Farm Aid 2024 Official Livestream – 9/21/24
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