Farm Aid and Legends Continue Partnership to Serve HOMEGROWN Concessions® at Farm Aid 2018

Festivalgoers will enjoy family farm food at all-day music and food festival

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Sep 11, 2018, 13:26 ET

HARTFORD, Conn., Sept. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Farm Aid partners with Legends Hospitality for the fourth consecutive year to offer festivalgoers a diverse menu of sustainably produced family farm food at Farm Aid 2018 on Saturday, September 22. Legends and its culinary team manage XFINITY Theatre's food and beverage service. Farm Aid's culinary director Sonya Dagovitz locates and approves sourcing and collaborates to secure additional food vendors for the annual festival.

"Farm Aid's mission is to strengthen family farm agriculture. HOMEGROWN accomplished this by promoting food from family farmers and creating more economic opportunity for family farmers," said Farm Aid Associate Director Glenda Yoder. "Legends Hospitality is an excellent partner for presenting delicious food for our 24,000 festivalgoers. The HOMEGROWN menu showcases the stories of the farmers who are the source of our food."

Farm Aid's HOMEGROWN Concessions^® criteria, which require that all ingredients are sustainably produced by family farmers with a fair price paid to farmers, has given Legends' Southeast Regional Chef, Sara Jordan, Northeast Regional Chef, Frank Travisano, along with Chef Tom Shields, the opportunity to carefully craft unique menus for Farm Aid 2018.

"For the fourth consecutive year, Legends is honored to partner with Farm Aid, where HOMEGROWN Concessions^® have become a staple of the localized guest experience," said Bill Wilson, vice president of Legends Hospitality. "Personally, Farm Aid is my favorite event of the year because of the authentic culinary approach. I can't wait for guests to enjoy the menus our chefs have curated to reflect Connecticut and the greater New England area."

HOMEGROWN Concessions^® offerings from Legends will include locally sourced fish and scallops from Red's Best Seafood; humanely raised sausages with toppings made from local produce; hot dogs with local sauerkraut; cheese from Beltane Farm in Lebanon, Connecticut; a bowl with Lundberg Family Farms rice and local callaloo and beans; pickled eggs from Pete & Gerry's Organic and humanely raised chicken from Shenandoah Valley Organic. Dishes feature spices and herbs from Frontier Co-op.

The HOMEGROWN Youthmarket, a fan favorite, is staffed by young people from Connecticut organizations selling local apples and other produce distributed by Red Tomato. Additional vendors include longtime Farm Aid favorite Patchwork Family Farms with its pork chops, Jalapeno Corn Dog Company and Lone Cedar Café. Other vendors include Hartford's Knox Farm with a salad-in-a-cup, chef Scott Miller with corn on the cob, Loafing Around's cookies made with oats from Maine Grains, Dean's Beans fair trade and organic coffee, the Whey Station featuring Cato Corner Farm's cheese, and Ben & Jerry's.

"As a small farmer who is a refugee and minority, I am thrilled to be associated with Hartford's KNOX and Gifts of Love Farm," said Connecticut farmer Vicheth Im. "I am proud that the homegrown food for 24,000 music fans at XFINITY Theatre will include fresh, organic produce grown with my hard-working hands and my labor of love."

All food at Farm Aid 2018 will be served on compostable serviceware. Blue Earth Compost will haul serviceware and food scraps to create compost that will sustain soil and future crops.

Farm Aid 2018 will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, as well as Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Particle Kid, and Ian Mellencamp.

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 how they are bringing good food for good health to our nation.

Sponsors of Farm Aid 2018 include Bonterra Organic Vineyards, Patagonia Workwear, Lundberg Family Farms, New Belgium Brewery, Horizon Organic, Pete and Gerry's Organic, Shenandoah Valley Organic, Harbor Harvest, Frontier Co-op, Spindrift and Dean's Beans.

People who missed their chance to purchase Farm Aid tickets can take part in the festival from home. AXS TV will broadcast "Farm Aid 2018" beginning at 7 p.m. ET. To find AXS TV in your area, visit www.axs.tv. The Farm Aid 2018 webcast at www.farmaid.org will begin at 3 p.m. ET. All broadcasts will feature behind-the-scenes looks at the annual Farm Aid festival and the organization's year-round work to strengthen family farm agriculture since 1985.

Download the official Farm Aid 2018 mobile app at www.farmaid.org/app. For event updates, follow Farm Aid on Twitter (@FarmAid), Facebook (facebook.com/farmaid) and Instagram (instagram.com/farmaid), and visit farmaid.org/festival. Festivalgoers are encouraged to use the hashtags #FarmAid2018 and #Road2FarmAid to join the conversation on social media around this year's show.

About Legends: Legends is a holistic solutions agency for brands in sports, music and entertainment. The Legends 360 approach leverages our collective unparalleled experience in Global Planning, Global Sales and Hospitality across professional sports, collegiate, attractions, entertainment, international and conventions worldwide. We are the architects of premium guest experiences. More information is available at www.legends.net.

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 festival to raise funds to support Farm Aid's work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. For more than 30 years, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised more than $53 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.

SOURCE Farm Aid