
When I heard that Farm Aid was coming to St. Louis back in August, I was ecstatic. Really, how often does Farm Aid come to St. Louis? I had to take advantage of this opportunity.
It has been forever since I’ve sat on the lawn at Riverport (yes, I still call it Riverport, it will always be Riverport to me) but I wasn’t about to spend THAT much money on seats. The day of the concert was perfect, sunny, a slight breeze, perfect jeans and tee-shirt weather. Brandon, Bob, Katie and I gathered at the house to have some chili before heading out and packed some snack foods to keep us from starving. When we got to Riverport, the lines to get in were ridiculous, but luckily, we had a connection: Brandon. He has a Verizon phone which allowed us to jump the line a bit but even, the concert had started by the time we got in. That’s okay, though, we found a perfect place in the middle, spread our blankets on the ground and camped there for the next 8 hours.

From the website, I was under the impression that there would be local farmers there, selling their wares and that was not true. There were many booths with information about organic food, bees, research, etc. But not much local produce or food. Sure, all the food that was sold in the normal snack areas were supplied by local farms but it just wasn’t the same.
As for the lineup, I was only interested in the later shows. I was really there for Wilco and Dave Matthews, but to see legends, Willie Nelson and Neil Young play, that was pretty cool. My sister fawned over Jason Mraz while her friend was super-thrilled about John Mellancamp. To each their own. Even though I didn’t know all the bands, I just enjoyed being outside, listening to music and hanging out with friends. Oh, and of course, people-watching. I do have to say, this concert did bring out all sorts of people, we had the potheads, the hoosiers, the bikers, the preppies, you name a type of person, I guarantee, they were there. Good times.