[Thanks so much to Phil Weisman, from Illinois, who sent me a copy of the Front Page of the Chicago Sun-Times from Monday, September 23, 1985, the day after the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois.
Chicago Sun-Times
Willie Wows 78,000
by: Andrew HerrmannCHAMPAIGN — Some 78,000 field hands heard the calling of farm distress and lent a hand here yesterday.
And after 14 hours of nonstop country and rock music, the crops of Farm Aid were harvested.
They called it the biggest country-and-rock concert ever, but the music was merely the plow that tilled the minds of Americans to open them to problems of many of the nation’s farmers.
Backer’s hoped to raise some $50 million from the concert, the media coverage and a toll-free hotline set up to take donations.
Willie Nelson, who organized the event, said at midnight that the hotline had generated $5 million.
More than 55 entertainers played from 10 a.m. until past midnight, encompassing a rare blend of country music and rock n’ roll. And a rare blend of fans, too.