Erin goes to the Concert Announcement

One week ago we all went to Copley Square to hold a press conference announcing our concert location -- if you haven’t already heard, the concert will be on September 20th at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA.

The press conference, from what I can tell, went smoothly. My prior experience with press conferences is fairly limited to being on the “other side” at basketball games, and seeing coaches and players come out to be interviewed, so this was different for me, but it was fun.

We were in Copley Square partially because of the farmers market that happens there every Tuesday and Friday for the summer and most of the fall. I love this farmers market. I actually live sort of nearby, so I do a lot of shopping here, and there is a wide range of food, from fresh fruits, vegetables, and berries to breads and pies to potted herbs to goat cheese to fair trade coffee. (To be honest, I actually got to the farmers market a little early to do some shopping!)

Tuesday was a gorgeous day, though a bit warm at about 80 degrees. The farmers’ stands had canopies, and throughout the day, they were spritzing their produce with water to keep it fresh. We slathered on the sunscreen (Cornelia even had a parasol) and set up tables to check people in (and serve delicious cranberry-lavender lemonade from the herb stand at the market)

Of course John Mellencamp spoke eloquently about the importance of farms. There is a great picture in today’s Boston Globe of he and his wife with some sunflowers from one of the farmers at the market, Chris Kurth of Siena Farms. Carolyn led the conference, and we also had remarks from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Human Affairs Ian Bowles, and Margaret Williams, the director of the Food Project, who made an awesome quip about having the same hairdresser as John. Representing the farmers was Casey of Old Friends Farm in Amherst, MA.

It was great to see the crowd at the farmers market, and we were in a visible enough place, with John’s CD (which came out the day before!) blaring over the loudspeakers. We had many passersby coming up just to ask what was going on, but many continued by asking for our website URL or how they could join the FarmYard. Everyone seemed excited by the speakers and like they really believed in the cause.

Tickets went on pre-sale to FarmYard members the morning after the announcement, and for a while we were busy troubleshooting the website and answering phones for customers. The tickets sold quickly throughout the day – we have some devoted fans and farm supporters! Tickets to the general public will go on sale July 28 via Ticketmaster.

Below are some photos Farm Aid took at the event.