www.RollingStone.com
by: Joseph Hudak
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Willie Nelson’s annual 4th of July Picnic will go forward this year as a concert film that includes new livestream performances, along with interviews and archival footage from the Picnic’s nearly 50-year history.
The concert streams Saturday, July 4th, beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET via luck.stream and williepicnic.com. Tickets are $35 now; and $45 on event day.
Last year’s Picnic was held at the Austin 360 Amphitheater and included performances by Luke Combs, Jamey Johnson, Hayes Carll, and Alison Krauss.
The event, headquartered at Nelson’s Luck, TX ranch in Spicewood in the Hill Country west of Austin and presented by Luck Productions, will stream live at 3:30 p.m. from luck.stream and williepicnic.com.
Unlike Nelson’s recent high-profile virtual events, such as A Night For Austin and Come and Toke It, this one won’t be free. Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 day of show, via the williepicnic.com website.
Appearing along with Willie and his sons’ bands — Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Micah Nelson’s Particle Kid — will be Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, Margo Price, Shakey Graves, Ziggy Marley, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen, Asleep at the Wheel, Steve Earle, Kurt Vile, the McCrary Sisters, John Doe, Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen, Johnny Bush, Devon Gilfillian, Charley Crockett, the Peterson Brothers, Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent, Vincent Neil Emerson and Kinky Friedman.
Nelson and his band will perform at his Pedernales Studios facility adjacent to the Luck, TX grounds. Some artists’ sets will be livestreamed from the saloon and chapel stages at Luck, while others will tape their performances from remote locations for a 90-minute concert-film segment. A house band featuring Charlie Sexton, the Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford, bassist John Michael Schoepf and drummer Josh Blue will back some of the artists. The film segment also will feature interviews and “Picnic memories,” according to the news release announcing the event..mobile.aol.com
“Our goal with the 2020 Picnic is to bring it back to what it was—in the only way we can during these times,” co-founder of Luck Productions Ellee Fletcher Durniak said in a statement. “We were set to host this year’s event at Luck, to welcome the Picnic back to its hill country home. The Picnic is really one of a kind, it has always been scrappy. Cars on fire. Mass arrests. You name it…it happened at the Picnic.”
Willie’s 4th of July Picnic livestream/concert film will benefit a number of organizations including All Together ATX, Six Square, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, SIMS Foundation and Central Texas Foodbank with one dollar from each ticket also heading to The Luck Reunion Fund.
Head here for ticket info and more.