Farm Aid 2021 Returns To CT's Xfinity Theatre In September

HARTFORD, CT — Farm Aid, the popular music festival started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985, returns to Connecticut in 2021 with an in-person show at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford on Sept. 25, organizers announced.

This is the second time the festival will be held in Connecticut, the first time was in 2018. During the coronavirus pandemic last year, the concert was held virtually.

"Farm Aid 2021 will reunite family farmers and musician activists, with performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson & Family, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, and Margo Price, as well as Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Bettye LaVette, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Allison Russell, Particle Kid, and Ian Mellencamp," organizers wrote on the festival's website.

The 2021 festival will be an outdoor, open-air show, and organizers said they will work "closely with venue staff, State and other public health officials to ensure that Farm Aid 2021 adheres to the most up-to-date safety guidelines."

Tickets for the festival go on sale Wednesday, with a limited number of pre-sale tickets. The remaining slate of public tickets, which range in price from $65 to $305, will go on sale on Friday. VIP tickets in the first 15 rows cost $500 to $2,500; a portion of the ticket price is a tax-deductible donation.

"The experience of the past 18 months has reminded us how much we need each other," Nelson said in a statement. "I'm so glad we can come together again at Farm Aid 2021. When we combine music, family farmers and good food, we have the power to grow the kind of agriculture that strengthens all of us."

In addition to music, the festival also has concessions featuring "family farm-identified, local and organic foods" using compostable service products with a goal of being a zero-waste event.

Added Mellencamp, "At Farm Aid…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."

Click here for more information on Farm Aid 2021.