“It was the biggest country music concert in history,” the Tribune wrote the day after the first Farm Aid on Sept. 22, 1985. “For more than 14 hours Memorial Stadium on the University of Illinois campus was transformed into Rockabilly Heaven before a rain-soaked but spirited crowd of about 78,000 and a national television audience estimated at more than 24 million.”

The event was the brainchild of country singer Willie Nelson, who was inspired by fellow musician Bob Dylan to hold a concert to raise money for American farmers.

Just as American farmers today are struggling to balance tariff uncertainty with dwindling overseas demand and high interest rates, “in the 1980s, family farmers faced a crisis the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the Great Depression,” explained Farm Aid on th

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