FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 3, 2015
Farm Aid Contact:
Brittany Vanderpool
202-248-5487
bvanderpool@vancomm.com
Legends Contacts:
Fran Gallagher
214-762-6193
fran@praestarpr.com
Angela Tassie
516-660-4522
atassie@legends.net
Farm Aid Partners With Legends Hospitality to Present HOMEGROWN Concessions® at Farm Aid 30 in Chicago Sept. 19
HOMEGROWN Concessions® will serve good food from family farms at all-day music and food festival
CHICAGO — Farm Aid announced today that it will partner with Legends Hospitality to bring family farm food to concertgoers at Farm Aid 30 in Chicago on Saturday, Sept. 19. Legends Hospitality and its culinary team are responsible for the food and beverage service for the 26,000 concertgoers attending the historic music and food festival at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island.
“Farm Aid is pleased to partner with Legends Hospitality for the first time,” said Farm Aid Associate Director Glenda Yoder. “Since 2007, Farm Aid has served HOMEGROWN Concessions® to more than 200,000 concertgoers across the nation, growing new economic opportunities for family farmers by introducing music venues to family farm food sources.”
Legends Hospitality’s chefs are creating specialty menus for Farm Aid 30 with ingredients adhering to Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN Concessions® criteria. These criteria require that all ingredients are sustainably produced by family farmers using ecological practices and that the farmer received a fair price. Farm Aid supervises the sourcing of ingredients, relying on its expertise in good food supply chains and its strong network of family farm organizations. The recipes from Legends as part of HOMEGROWN Concessions® will include grilled chicken chipotle sausages, a grilled portobello mushroom burger, vegetarian nachos, an organic chicken banh mi sandwich, a Chicago-style burger, a Farm Aid 30 sugar cookie, beef burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches. Menu items will feature humanely raised protein and dairy, produce and ingredients sourced from local family farms and bread made with organic flour.
“We are honored to be working with Farm Aid 30, with this year’s event marking a major milestone in the powerfully impactful campaign for family farms and genuinely good food for everyone,” said Angela Tassie, director of marketing and communications for Legends Hospitality. “We serve thousands of fans at venues across our country all year long, and this advocacy of reaching consumers with wholesome, inspiring messages about food and sourcing from family farms across America is also a goal of ours in our culinary culture and innovation in large venue food. We all are in awe of what Farm Aid has done and continues to do for our industry.”
Additional vendors include longtime Farm Aid food purveyors Patchwork Family Farms and Jalapeno Corndog Concessions, as well as Farm Aid’s own HOMEGROWN Youthmarket, a farm fresh stand staffed with local youth engaged in urban agriculture. Signature Chicago vendors like The Goddess and Grocer, Hewn bakery and Stock Café will serve their artisan creations.
The event also will include staff from the Careers through Culinary Arts Program, a national nonprofit organization that works with public schools to prepare underserved high school students for college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry.
All food will be served on compostable service ware to create a conservation-minded event. The resulting compost made from service ware and food scraps will sustain soil and future crops in the Chicago region.
Farm Aid 30 will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews — with Tim Reynolds — as well as Imagine Dragons, Jack Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Mavis Staples, Old Crow Medicine Show, Jamey Johnson, Holly Williams, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Insects vs Robots, Ian Mellencamp and Blackwood Quartet.
The HOMEGROWN Village will include hands-on activities that engage festivalgoers in the ways family farmers are enriching our soil, protecting our water and growing our economy, in addition to bringing good food for good health.
Tickets for Farm Aid 30 are available for purchase at www.livenation.com, the venue box office and by phone at 1-800-745-3000. Ticket prices range from $49.50 to $189.50. A limited number of tickets remains.
For event updates, follow Farm Aid on Twitter (@farmaid) and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/farmaid), and visit www.farmaid.org/concert. Sponsors of Farm Aid 30 include Amy’s Kitchen, Horizon Organic, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Applegate, Canidae® Natural Pet Food Company, Greener Fields Together, Lagunitas Brewing Co., Organic Valley and FirstMerit Bank.
About Legends Hospitality: Leading the industry with innovation and excellence in culinary programs at large venues, Legends Hospitality provides its award-winning food and beverage programs for such premier and iconic entertainment destinations as 35 Live Nation amphitheatres in major markets across the United States; Yankee Stadium; AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys; Angel Stadium of Anaheim; Sporting Park in Kansas City; Etihad Stadium in Manchester City, England; and the new Golden 1 Center, Home of the Sacramento Kings, opening in 2016. Legends also operates One World Observatory in the profound and historic destination of the One World Trade Center, which opened in May 2015.
About Farm Aid: Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. For 30 years, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised $48 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.
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**Editors and Producers Note: Advance credentials are required for all media to attend Farm Aid 30. Please visit farmaid.org/media by Thursday, Sept. 10, to apply. Media can download official Farm Aid photos and videos at farmaid.org/media.**
