How To Watch Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews Band and More Perform Live at CNN’s ‘Farm Aid Music Festival’ — SkimNews
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- CNN will air Farm Aid 2026: Music Festival Live on Saturday, Sept. 26 from 7-11 p.m. ET, marking its second consecutive year as the festival's exclusive broadcast partner.
- Performers include Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson and Family, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff.
- CNN anchors John Berman and Laura Coates will co-anchor from the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with chief climate correspondent Bill Weir providing on-the-ground reporting.
- Last year's 40th-anniversary broadcast reached 3.88 million people globally, and CNN audiences contributed more than $615,000 to Farm Aid.
- Farm Aid was founded in 1985 by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp and has raised more than $85 million since inception to support family farmers and reform industrial agriculture.
Why it matters: Farm Aid has raised more than $85 million over four decades to promote family farms and challenge industrial agriculture, and last year's CNN broadcast alone generated $615,000 in viewer donations — giving the network's second year as exclusive broadcast partner real fundraising stakes that extend well beyond the celebrity lineup.
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