Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts are set to return to the concert stage on Sept. 26 when Farm Aid arrives at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach. The show puts Young back in front of an audience for the first time since the Painted Turtle benefit in October 2025.
That is the date fans are searching for now, because ticket sales begin Sept. 26 and the Virginia Beach bill is loaded with familiar names. Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff are all on the Farm Aid roster with Young, alongside Turnpike Troubadours, Lukas Nelson, Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs, Jesse Welles, Sierra Ferrell, Mon Rovîa, I’m With Her, Amythyst Kiah, Lily Meola and Chris Pierce.
Nelson framed the stop as more than a concert. In a statement, he said family farmers grow the food that holds communities together, and that when they struggle, the damage spreads beyond the field. He said Farm Aid is coming to Virginia to stand with the farmers and fishers who feed Hampton Roads and beyond and to push for a food system that works for everyone.
The return matters because Young and the Chrome Hearts have been out of live view for months, including after they cancelled plans for a European tour this summer. Their absence made the Virginia Beach date the first real marker of whether the band was back on the road, not just back in the studio. Young also has a new studio album, Second Song, due later this year, but the setlist question remains open: there is no word yet on whether the group will repeat the seven-song run it played at last year’s 40th anniversary Farm Aid show in Minneapolis or try something new.
Farm Aid has been a fixture since the original benefit in 1985, and the board is treating Virginia Beach as another chapter in that run rather than a one-off. If Young takes the stage as scheduled on Sept. 26, it will be the clearest sign yet that the Chrome Hearts are back in motion, and the show will do exactly what Nelson said it should: put a big room, a major lineup and a live audience behind the farmers and fishers the festival says it was built to support.
