Nelson’s Farm Aid off to new pastures

ALBANY, N.Y. — Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson is taking his annual Farm Aid benefit concert to upstate New York with an all-day festival of music and locally grown food in September.

The event in Saratoga Springs, 50 kilometres north of Albany, will feature Nelson and Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews, as well as other artists to be announced soon. Tickets go on sale to Farm Aid members June 18 and to the public June 28, the organization said Friday.

The concert will be Sept. 21 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

At a stop in Albany on Thursday, Nelson said the Northeast is fertile ground for new farmers and sustainable agriculture. Farm Aid’s mission is to keep family farmers on the land and support the movement toward healthy, locally grown food.

“There’s a whole lot of small family farmers in upstate New York,” Nelson told reporters on his tour bus in Albany. “I think this is a great place to try to reach some family farmers.”

Nelson said Farm Aid exists because government agricultural policies often favour large corporate-owned farms. “Small family farmers really need help; the big corporate farmers are doing OK,” he said.