The Farm Aid team worked with the venue concessionaire and local producers for months to bring Farm Aid 2026 festivalgoers this year’s HOMEGROWN Concessions®. We are proud of our menu and endlessly grateful to all the farmers who produced this food.
See a larger version of the Farm Aid 2026 menu.
The HOMEGROWN Concessions® Criteria
HOMEGROWN Food for All!® comes from family farmers who use ecological practices and are paid a fair price. This food is served on compostable, recyclable or reusable serviceware. We highlight fresh foods in season and local, diverse food cultures, and emphasize procurement from local farms, co-ops, food hubs and small businesses.
Our Process
Starting with a site visit in early spring, we connect with the local culinary scene by visiting farmers markets, talking to chefs, touring farms, shopping at independent grocers and meeting with food hubs and independent distributors. Every festival region has its own strengths and challenges, and we are always looking to uplift the good work that local organizations and farmers are already doing.
In the meantime, the venue concessionaire (this year, Legends Global) works with their chefs to develop a menu that reflects the region. Our catering chef also builds out a menu to feed artists, volunteers, staff and crew. We have worked together for many years now and are grateful for collaboration with these chefs!
Once the menu is built, the match-making between ingredients and sourcing begins. Using the Farm Aid “approved supplier list,” Legends and the catering teams facilitate connections between buyers and farmers. It can be a challenge to meet the scale needed to feed 20,000 people, but food hubs and aggregators play a critical role. We also partner with reputable brands who are doing the work to source from American family farmers.
The last step is telling the story to our beloved festivalgoers. We want you to meet the incredible farmers, producers and harvesters who worked so hard to get you the food you are eating.
Our Team and History
Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN Concessions® is a first-of-its-kind model for featuring family farm-identified, local and organic foods at major concert events. HOMEGROWN Concessions® has fed more than 300,000 festivalgoers since its introduction in 2007 at the HOMEGROWN Festival at Randall’s Island in New York City. It has served as a model for entertainment events, including the Super Bowl and a variety of music festivals and venues that have embraced the Good Food Movement in concessions.
Farm Aid’s former Associate Director Glenda Yoder and former Culinary Director Sonya Dagovitz created this model, trademarked it and developed HOMEGROWN Concessions® for almost two decades. It is their brilliance that laid the groundwork for how Farm Aid operates today. This year, Anna Mulè, Carolina Reid and Justin Betzer are leading the team to bring you HOMEGROWN Food for All!®
Watch Dave Matthews speak about the food served at Farm Aid festivals and how it affects both farmers and festivalgoers alike:
Learn more on Against the Grain: The Farm Aid Podcast
The Farm Aid Vibe: Behind the scenes at Farm Aid 2026
Hear from Culinary Director Carolina Reid and our Backstage Catering Director, Justin Betzer, and learn more about sourcing and how we work with regional farmers.
In this episode, our guests Glenda Yoder and our Sonya Dagovitz who, together, established HOMEGROWN Concessions® in 2007, explain how they swap out the food normally served at the venue with HOMEGROWN Food for All!®
Meet Your Farmers
Click below to see the farmers who grew food for Farm Aid 2026:
