Farm Aid 2023 — a full day of music, family farmers, HOMEGROWN food and agrarian experiences — will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds), and Margo Price, as well as Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring The Wolfpack, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson, Allison Russell, The String Cheese Incident, and Particle Kid. The festival will highlight the work of family farmers to address climate change through regenerative, organic and sustainable farming practices. Farm Aid will showcase these innovative climate champions on the Farm Aid stage and throughout the event. As farmers and farm and food advocates converge from across the country for the annual festival, Farm Aid will host additional pre-festival events to spotlight their work.
This is the third Farm Aid concert that has taken place in Indiana, and the second in Noblesville. Farm Aid IV took place at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis in 1990, and Farm Aid 2001: A Concert for America was held in Noblesville just weeks after the terrorist attacks of 2001.
“Family farmers have the solutions to some of our toughest challenges,” said Farm Aid President and Founder Willie Nelson. “As we face a changing climate, farmers in Indiana, across the Midwest and all over the country are farming in ways that create more resilient farms to build healthy soils and protect our water.”
Across the state, climate change has already had a considerable impact. In the coming years, climate change will shift the state to two extremes: hotter, drier summers and wetter winters and springs, creating more urgency for on-farm production practices that care for the soil and water. Indiana has the most polluted rivers and streams of any state, and almost all of Indiana’s lakes and reservoirs sampled in a recent study are unfit for drinking water. One of the main culprits is manure run-off from large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations. Many family farmers in Indiana are national leaders in implementing farming practices to mitigate climate change, including cover cropping, rotating crops, reducing soil tillage, integrating livestock and crop production, raising pastured livestock, and improving soil and water management.
“We are honored and excited to bring the Farm Aid experience back to Indiana. My home state holds deep meaning for me and for the generations of family farmers who have dedicated their lives to caring for the Earth and bringing us good food,” said Farm Aid Co-Founder John Mellencamp.
Indiana is the eighth largest farming state in the nation, generating $31.2 billion annually. Every 10 jobs directly related to Indiana agriculture support an additional eight jobs in the state. Home to 56,649 farms with an average farm size of 264 acres, there are more than 94,000 farmers in Indiana. More than 80% of land in Indiana is devoted to farms, forests and woodland. While its top crops are corn and soybeans, Hoosier farmers grow more than 30 major fruits and vegetables each year, including melons, pumpkins and mint.
Farm Aid festival attendees experience a full day of music and the taste of local flavors with Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN Concessions®, which offer a diverse, fresh menu with ingredients that are produced by family farmers using ecological practices with a fair price paid to the farmers. Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN Village features hands-on activities engaging festivalgoers with exhibits about soil, water, energy, food and farming. Festivalgoers can hear farmers and artists inform and inspire on the FarmYard Stage and celebrate the know- how and diversity of cultures of agriculture in the HOMEGROWN Skills tent.
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, Dave Matthews and Margo Price host an annual festival to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. For more than 35 years, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised more than $70 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.
