CNN to Air Farm Aid 2026 Live Featuring Performances by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Neil Young and More
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- CNN will broadcast "Farm Aid 2026: Music Festival Live" live on Saturday, Sept. 26 from 7-11 p.m. ET, streaming simultaneously on cnn.com/watch and the CNN app for CNN and pay TV subscribers.
- Willie Nelson and Family, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff are all confirmed performers, with Nelson, Young and Mellencamp serving as Farm Aid board members.
- John Berman and Laura Coates will co-anchor from the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir will provide on-the-ground reporting.
- CNN's 2025 broadcast of Farm Aid's 40th anniversary reached 3.88 million people globally and prompted CNN audiences to contribute more than $615,000 to Farm Aid, according to the network.
- Farm Aid, founded by Nelson, Young and Mellencamp in 1985, has raised more than $85 million over four decades to support family farmers and expand the Good Food Movement.
- CNN frames the special as part of its broader slate of live event programming, alongside its broadcast of Broadway's "Good Night, and Good Luck" starring George Clooney and its New Year's Eve and Fourth of July celebrations.
Why it matters: CNN's national platform turned last year's 40th-anniversary Farm Aid broadcast into a $615,000 fundraising haul and 3.88 million global viewers — a replay of that event in 2026 gives the organization's 40-year, $85 million family-farmer mission another major mass-market stage and donor pipeline.
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