Noblesville, IN. – It’s been 22 years since Farm Aid graced the stage in Indiana and 38 years since it all first started; inspired by a comment that legendary folk-singer Bob Dylan made from the stage at Live Aid. At that time in 1985, the three original board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Indiana’s favorite son John Mellencamp, heard Dylan’s words and answered the call – recognizing the plight of the American farmer along with unprecedented foreclosures of the family farm – and Farm Aid was born.
“We couldn’t think of a better place to host Farm Aid this year. The Indiana family farmers who are stewarding their land sustainably have given us hope. Their innovative work to protect our air, soil and water should be the way forward for agriculture here and around the country.”
~Willie Nelson
A lot has changed since those original days in 1985 but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a need. The weakened Farm Bill was a hot topic throughout the day. Set to expire September 30th with the government shut down looming the bill is crucial for millions of Americans, influencing both food policies and agriculture along with energy and rural communities. You may think it isn’t something that’s necessarily important in our day-to-day lives but amidst the supply chain and food shortage issues of early pandemic, many Americans turned to their local farmers as well as farmers’ markets to help.
We saw a lot of red shirts during the day that read “Stop Factory Farms” and heard a lot of discussions about why the factory farm doesn’t work! A constant reminder throughout the day was asked, “Did you eat today? If so, thank a family farmer!”
“This is serious business! This factory farm thing doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for us. It doesn’t work for humanity. It doesn’t work for the planet. It doesn’t work for the animals. It doesn’t work for anything that grows naturally. What we’ve done is gotten greedy. I’m not going to descend into a corporate farm assault. But I would like to say that we have a choice. And it’s really the people on the street that are going to make a difference. The farmers are doing everything they can do. But without the people behind the farmers, it’s not going to work!”
~Neil Young
Another big topic of the day was sustainability of the soil, water, and air. You heard from farmers firsthand about their daily challenges; farmers care about the planet, they care about their farms and about what they are producing, they care about their communities. Chemicals destroy our land – they destroy our food supply. A big concern these days is how much of our food has been genetically modified to produce more and to gain a profit? You can learn more about Farm Aid’s mission and how you can help support their cause by clicking here.
“When you look at the farm system that we call conventional farm system, it has nothing to do with the planet and it has nothing to do with the community. It has everything to do with profit. It is only about money and it is killing the planet along with other capitalist ideas like that. I’m not saying that making a dollar isn’t a good thing. I’m just saying making all of the dollars at the expense of everything is gonna kill the planet for us. We are not helping anybody if we are relying on profit driven systems to take care of us – whether it’s the criminal system, the drug or pharmaceutical companies or the food that we eat. Profit is not the goal!”
~ Dave Matthews
“I don’t believe that any of us in our wildest dreams would believe that 38 years later, we would still have a need to do Farm Aid!”
~John Mellencamp
Farm Aid returned this year to Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, IN who last hosted Farm Aid in 2001. The day kicked off with a 50 minute press conference with board members John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Dave Matthews, along with Executive Director Carolyn Mugar and several local farmers. Missing from the press conference was fellow board member Margo Price, whose tour bus had broken down on her way to Ruoff. Thankfully, Margo and her band did eventually make it to the venue. During the press conference, we got to see several videos highlighting the local farmers appearing on stage and their daily challenges in maintaining the small family farm.
Once the gates opened, attendees were met with a HOMEGROWN Village where they could engage in hands-on activities about climate, soil, water, energy, food and farming. They could hear farmers and artists discuss the pressing issues and share inspiring stories on the FARMYARD stage. Festivalgoers could also participate in demonstrations to learn how to cultivate land and celebrate the culture of agriculture. Throughout the venue, the HOMEGROWN Concessions served food with ingredients that were produced by family farmers utilizing ecological production practices with (and this is important) a fair price paid to the farmers. Attendees could enjoy Indiana pastured beef burgers, stuffed organic russet potatoes with toppings, blackened shrimp tacos from a Louisiana shrimper, Indiana pastured beef hot dogs topped with brisket from Indiana certified grass-fed beef, roasted brussel sprouts, and roasted local, non-GMO elote and kettle corn. I personally saw several festivalgoers enjoying the elote (meaning corn cob in Spanish, the corn is roasted on a grill and then slathered with a mayo cream sauce and garnished with chili powder, cheese and lime) – it definitely was a popular item and my only regret of the day was that I never had a chance to grab one. They looked delicious!
There was also a HOMEGROWN Youth Market that sold fresh and seasonal produce, grown locally on family farms and staffed by the FFA’s Hamilton Southeastern student chapter, Human Agriculture Co-operative out of Ft. Wayne, IN and The Grange. This gave attendee’s an opportunity to talk to these young adults, learn about the work they do in their communities, get to know the farms represented and taste fresh fruit, pecans and baked goods.
Farm Aid even had a place for the attendee’s to escape the SOLD-OUT crowd; where you could sit and relax while watching real sheep graze in an open meadow and think about all that you’ve learned about farming. Wow!
Oh, AND there were some bands that showed up to play…
I welcome you to enjoy a visual highlight (in chronological order) of the days performances.
Black Opry featuring Tylar Bryant, Kyshona, & Lori Rayne
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring The Wolfpack (& special guest Sturgill Simpson)
The Jim Irsay Band featuring Ann Wilson of Heart
Farm Aid 2023 in Noblesville, IN on 9.23.23. All photos in galleries © Pix Meyers.
Neil Young returns to the Farm Aid stage after not performing at the event since 2019. Unfortunately, Neil only performed four songs to make room for a special guest that hadn’t been announced.
The crowd was stunned when mystery guest Bob Dylan took the stage with former members of the Heartbreakers (Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench & Steve Ferrone) to perform a three-song set – “Maggie’s Farm“, “Positively 4th Street“, & “Ballad of a Thin Man“. This was the first appearance of Dylan at Farm Aid since the inaugural event 1985. It should also be noted that this was the first appearance of the Heartbreakers performing together since the unfortunate death of Tom Petty in 2017. Another special tidbit about this performance is Bob played electric guitar which he hasn’t done on tour for the last few years. Watch the full performance of Bob Dylan & the Heartbreakers below. (*The video starts out very dark which is how the set started but the light balances out after a little bit).
Closing out the show was Willie Nelson, sitting in-between his two youngest sons Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson, to perform a stunning 16-song set followed by everyone who performed during the event joining Willie and his band for the encore.
Whiskey River * Bloody Mary Morning * I Never Cared for You * Texas Flood * Help Me Make It Through the Night * Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven) * Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys * Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground * On the Road Again * Always On My Mind * Just Outside of Austin * Good Hearted Woman * I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train * Everything Is Bullshit * Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die * Write Your Own Songs * Encore with everyone: Will the Circle Be Unbroken / I’ll Fly Away * It’s Hard to Be Humble
Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $70 million dollars to help family farms and farmers across the U.S. – learn more about Farm Aid and the ways you can help by clicking here.
Show Date: 9/23/2023
