Farm Aid 2012

My sister got me tickets to Farm Aid for my birthday.
Check out the line-up, of course I was excited to go!!
Willie Nelson
John Mellencamp
Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds
Kenny Chesney
Jack Johnson
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
Jamey Johnson
ALO
Pegi Young & The Survivors
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

And so, in keeping with AWESOME Birthday tradition, I called Andrea and asked if she would happen to want to come with me. Of course she did! (I like this seeing Jack for my Birthday thing.)

We loaded up the car and made the trek up to Hershey, PA.

My mom had told me that we had been to Hershey Park many years ago and her fondest memory was the sweet scent of chocolate in the air of the entire town. She was right. The whole town smells like chocolate... its FANTASTIC! 

Farm Aid is an annual event, that I plan to attend again for sure. Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. Dave Matthews joined the Farm Aid Board of Directors in 2001. Farm Aid has raised more than $40 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture. Farm Aid is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land.

We tried to play the "count the cowboy hat" game, however, we lost track around 25. We then switched and tried to play the "count the tie-dyed shirts" game, but then again we lost track at 30-ish and we weren't quit sure how to count the tie-dyed dresses and/or over-alls. It was FANTASTIC people watching.

We had great seats too!

Jack went on right around sunset, it was beautiful! He started with Home, which was very fitting for the farming theme of the night. He did Bubble Toes and since his wife was there he did Do You Remember.  He was very family friendly and talked about his kids and did Upside Down. Jack is always awesome to see and he was very grateful to be part of Willie Nelson's event. Jack has his own benefit concert, the Kokua Festival to benefit Kokua Hawaii. Along with Red Rocks, THAT is on my concert Bucket List for sure!

After Jack, was Kenny Chesney. I was frightened and highly disappointed with myself and the amount of his songs that I did know...damn you Land O' Lakes!!

My redemption came when Dave took the stage. As always he was great. It was Dave and Tim so they opened with Grave Digger, then did Dancing Nancies (to let Tim shine) and then as my Birthday Dave show tradition calls for, he did Crush! (My 22nd Birthday was in ATL with Dave and he played Crush for me then too!) He closed with a song he said his mother likes, Mercy.

After Dave came John "Cougar" Mellencamp. Mr. Mellencamp, has certainly lost the Cougar aspect of his persona. He started with Authority song, played some new-ish or at least not well known stuff, had Kenny Chesney come out and help him with Small Town (this video is actually from Farm Aid) and he did NOT do Jack and Diane. Disappointing.

Neil Young played 3 songs for about 45 minutes straight. He was jamming. He was really good, but I will say, he got a little too preachy when he started a song/chant stating "Homegrown is great, homegrown is best." While I do agree Homegrown is great... it was a little cult-ish.

Willie Nelson went on at 11:00... well past my bedtime. Many people had left by this time which I feel like that was a little bit rude, Willie Nelson is a legend. He and his son played Breathe... although his son looks like Jason Ritter, he sound exactly like Willie. It was really cool.

Farm Aid was awesome. Thank you for my birthday present Jen!