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Farm Aid 2019: Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Margo Price to perform

By Annie Martin
Willie Nelson (L), pictured with Sheryl Crow, will perform at his annual Farm Aid concert in September. File Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI
1 of 3 | Willie Nelson (L), pictured with Sheryl Crow, will perform at his annual Farm Aid concert in September. File Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI | License Photo

July 9 (UPI) -- Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Margo Price are among the 2019 Farm Aid performers.

The annual music festival announced this year's line up, date and location, Sept. 21 at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisc., in a tweet Tuesday.

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Raitt, Price, Tanya Tucker and other artists will join Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, who sit on the board of directors. The annual event aims to support and increase awareness of the importance of family farms.

"With devastating weather, low prices and harmful farm and trade policies, America's family farmers are facing immense challenges to hold onto their farms. It's not right... family farmers are essential for all of us," Nelson said on the Farm Aid website. "At Farm Aid 2019 we'll highlight solutions and show our support for family farmers' contributions to our health, economy and environment."

Nelson, Young and Mellencamp first staged Farm Aid in 1985. Farm Aid has since raised $53 million to programs benefiting family farmers and to support a food system in the U.S. centered on family farms.

The 2019 concert will take place in Wisconsin, one of the nation's leading producers of dairy products, following declining dairy prices and the closure of hundreds of farms. Relentless weather has also affected corn and other crops.

"We're bringing Farm Aid to the heartland because we need to show the country what's happening to the people who grow our food and take care of our soil and water," Mellencamp said. "We want family farmers to know that we won't let them go down without a fight. And neither should you -- farmers need us, and we need farmers."

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