SOMERVILLE, MA. (Top40 Charts/ Farm Aid) - Farm Aid today announced that country star
Kenny Chesney will join board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young,
John Mellencamp and
Dave Matthews for its first-ever New England music festival at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass. on Sept. 20.
"American family farmers are what this country is built on ... and they have fed us and kept us strong and healthy for how many generations?" said Chesney, who is from Luttrell, Tennessee. "Growing up in a small town outside Knoxville, it was a big part of who we were - and it's something we as a country shouldn't lose. If I can help be part of that - whether it's raising money, or awareness, or just letting those family farmers know someone knows and cares - well, that's why I'm coming to New England."
Singer/songwriter Kenny Chesney is a four-time Country Music Association and three-time, as well as the current, Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year. He will bring his unique country sound to Farm Aid's annual benefit concert just weeks after closing his sell-out Poets & Pirates 2008 Tour.
Tickets for Farm Aid 2008 Presented by Whole Foods Market and Horizon Organic will go on sale July 28 at 10 a.m. EDT and are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com, livenation.com or by calling (866) 448-7849. Tickets are priced at $35 for lawn, $55 for uncovered seats, $95 for covered seats and $200 for VIP plus a $7 parking and facility fee for all tickets.
The day-long festival will celebrate music and good food, featuring hands-on activities in the HOMEGROWN Village that will showcase the direct connection between who is growing our food and what we eat every day. The concert event will again feature family-farm identified, local and organic foods at concessions, setting an example of the many ways that family farm food can be integrated into the general marketplace. Other top artists will be announced.
"Farm Aid is a movement inspired not only by the passion of Farm Aid board artists Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews but also by the more than 300 artists who have donated their performances at our shows year after year," said Carolyn Mugar, executive director of Farm Aid. "We are proud to again welcome Kenny Chesney to the Farm Aid stage for what will prove to be a remarkable day of music, food, awareness and action."
Farm Aid's mission is to build a vibrant family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid's work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family-farmed food. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $30 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.
