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Farm Aid returning to Burgettstown

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Willie Nelson performs at Farm Aid 30 at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago in 2015. The 2017 Farm Aid concert will be held in September at KeyBank Pavilion near Burgettstown.

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Neil Young performs at Farm Aid 30 in Chicago in 2015. He will be performing this September in a Farm Aid show at KeyBank Pavilion near Burgettstown.

Farm Aid is returning to the region.

The long-running annual benefit concert for family farmers will be at the KeyBank Pavilion outside Burgettstown Sept. 16. This year’s lineup, announced Tuesday, includes Farm Aid mainstays Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Neil Young, along with the Avett Brothers, Jamey Johnson, Jack Johnson and Sheryl Crow. Additional acts will be announced later this summer.

Pre-sale tickets will go on sale at noon Wednesday at the website www.farmaid.org. They will then go on sale through Ticketmaster or by phone at 800-745-3000 at 10 a.m. June 23. Ticket prices range from $49.50 to $199.50.

This is the second time Farm Aid has come to the venue – the first time was in 2002, when Nelson, Matthews, Mellencamp and Young appeared, along with Kid Rock, the Drive-By Truckers, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gillian Welch and others. The first Farm Aid concert happened in September 1985 in Champaign, Ill., prompted by an offhand comment Bob Dylan made at the massive Live Aid benefit show in Philadelphia in July of that year. During his set, the usually taciturn Dylan remarked that “I hope that some of the money that’s raised for the people in Africa, maybe they could just take a little bit of it, maybe … one or two million … to pay the mortgages on some of the farms.”

Nelson, the founder and president of Farm Aid, said in a statement family farm agriculture “is the heart of Pennsylvania. What’s happening in Western Pennsylvania and the region shows us that we can count on family farmers to strengthen our communities and connect people. Whether we live in rural or urban places, food – and music – brings us all together.”

Along with the music, Farm Aid will also offer local and organic foods, a “homegrown village” that will feature hands-on activities about farming, food, soil and energy, and a “homegrown skills” tent that celebrates agriculture and turns the spotlight on agrarian skills.

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