Hug Your Farmer Goes Statewide with First-Ever Live Radio Broadcast, Inviting Vermonters to Listen Together
Vermont organizations, farms, and neighbors encouraged to host listening parties on November 20 to celebrate music, community, and the farmers who help Vermont thrive.
For the first time in its 16-year history, Hug Your Farmer is bringing the music and spirit of its annual live benefit concert into homes, farms, and gathering places across Vermont.
On Friday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m., the Vermont Community Foundation, in partnership with Radio Vermont, will bring Hug Your Farmer live to listeners across the state on WDEV, WLVB, and WCVT, inviting Vermonters to share in an evening of music, generosity, and community in support of Vermont’s farmers and working lands.
Nicole Nelson, Grace Potter, and Kat Wright, 2025 Hug Your Farmer. image credit: Luke Awtry
Some of Vermont’s best moments happen when we come together.
Organizers are encouraging farms, agricultural organizations, community groups, and neighbors to host listening parties, turning the broadcast into a statewide celebration of music, friendship, and the farmers who make Vermont such a special place to live. Whether it’s a potluck in a barn, a gathering around a woodstove, or friends sharing music in a living room, it’s one more reason to gather, connect, and celebrate the Vermont we love.
This year, Vermont Community Foundation fundholders will match the first $100,000 in donations, doubling the impact of gifts made to support Vermont’s farming community.
“Strong communities are built on the connections between us, and Hug Your Farmer is a wonderful example of that,” said Dan Smith, president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation. “Our farmers do so much more than grow our food. They care for our land, sustain our rural economy, and help shape the Vermont we love. The idea that, for one night, people across the state will be gathering around the same music, celebrating our farmers, and being part of something bigger than themselves. That’s Vermont at its best.”
Dan Smith, Hug Your Farmer, 2025. image credit: Luke Awtry
A Vermont tradition, shared across the state.
Select Design created Hug Your Farmer in 2010, when it brought Vermont musicians and the community together to raise funds to support Pete’s Greens after a fire destroyed their barn. Hug Your Farmer has grown into one of Vermont’s most beloved musical traditions. From that first concert at Higher Ground to today, 100% of ticket and merchandise sales go directly to the Vermont Community Foundation to support Vermont’s agricultural community. HYF has raised more than $1 million for Vermont farmers and farming initiatives.
“Select created this series to celebrate our beautiful landscape, our local food system and the people and families that work so hard to connect us to it,” said Rich Price (of The Sweet Remains) and producer and emcee of Hug Your Farmer. “Great music is the excuse for us all to come together to have fun and give thanks.”
Rich Price, Hug Your Farmer, 2025. image credit: Luke Awtry
This year’s concert celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Last Waltz, The Band’s legendary farewell concert. Musical director Bob Wagner will bring together an extraordinary lineup of Vermont musicians to perform their own interpretations of songs from The Band and the artists who joined them for that historic performance.
“It’s been my experience that when they’re not talking about music, musicians only want to talk about food, whereas the farmers and restaurant industry professionals that help make Vermont’s local food system so incredibly resilient mostly just want to talk about music. Go figure! Hug Your Farmer brings us together under the same roof to celebrate and support the farmers that keep Vermont so well fed,” said Bob Wagner, the night’s musical director. He also provided this fun fact, “The Last Waltz was held on Thanksgiving day 1976 (Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco) and The Band treated their 5,000+ guests to a full Thanksgiving dinner before the concert, complete with 220 turkeys, 90 gallons of gravy and hundreds of pounds of potatoes and yams!”
Bob Wagner and Hug Your Farmer musicians, 2025. image credit: Luke Awtry
Gather your neighbors. Turn up the music.
The live broadcast offers a new way for Vermonters to be part of Hug Your Farmer, whether they’re gathering with friends around a woodstove, hosting a community potluck, or bringing together farmers and supporters at a local agricultural organization.
“Radio Vermont has been bringing local artists to the towns and cities we serve across the state for over 94 years,” said Myers Mermel, Owner of Radio Vermont. “We are proud to support Hug Your Farmer and its mission to build and strengthen ties across our communities through the unifying joy and power of live Vermont music.”
Listeners can also support Vermont farmers by making a gift before or during the broadcast at vermontcf.org/farmer.
Turning music and generosity into lasting impact
The Vermont Community Foundation works with agricultural partners to turn the generosity of Hug Your Farmer into grants supporting the people who grow our food and care for our working lands.
In the past three years alone, Hug Your Farmer has generated more than $500,000 for Vermont farmers and agricultural organizations.
That support has reached farmers and communities in many ways, including emergency assistance following devastating flooding, financial resources to help farms recover and grow, mental health support through Farm First, and programs like New Farms for New Americans that help strengthen Vermont’s agricultural future.
This year, we have a special opportunity to make your generosity go even further. Vermont Community Foundation fundholders will match the first $100,000 in donations to Hug Your Farmer, doubling the support for Vermont’s farming community.
Hug Your Farmer takes place Friday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m. at The Flynn in Burlington.
Vermonters can join the celebration by attending the concert, tuning in live on Radio Vermont’s WDEV, WLVB, and WCVT stations, hosting a listening party, or making a donation to support Vermont farmers.
For tickets to the in-person concert, visit flynnvt.org.
To listen on Radio Vermont, tune into WDEV AM 550 (Waterbury), WDEV FM 96.1 (Top of Sugarbush), WDEV FM 96.5 (Barre), WDEV FM 98.3 (Montpelier), WDEV FM101.9 (Island Pond) or tune into WCVT FM 101.7 (Mt. Mansfield) or WCVT FM 102.5 (Montpelier), or tune into WLVB FM 93.9 (Morrisville).
To make a donation, visit: vermontcf.org/farmer.
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