Memorial Stadium

Before Memorial Stadium was built, the University of Illinois football team played at Illinois Field, which only had the capacity for 17,000 fans. As football grew at the University, a larger facility was needed.

Fundraising for Memorial Stadium began in 1921 under Robert Zuppke and George Huff. The stadium, costing over $2 million, was largely paid for through donations and pledges, $700,000 of which came from undergraduate students. The stadium was designed by a Chicago-based firm that also designed Soldier Field. Construction was carried out by the English Brothers, a local contracting company. Memorial Stadium was built in 1923 in honor of the University of Illinois students who served and died during World War I. However, it was not dedicated until 1924, at which point the names of these soldiers were fully transcribed onto the 200 columns that support the stadium. Since its construction, Memorial Stadium has been home to the Illinois football program. It also housed the Track and Field program until 1984, and even the University Television Studio for a time. 

While talking with Willie Nelson at the Illinois State Fair, Governor Jim Thompson volunteered Memorial Stadium as the venue for Farm Aid 1985. Centrally located, with plenty of space and a bustling college town surrounding it, Memorial Stadium seemed like the ideal location. During the concert, the stadium was filled; the stands and field were packed with over 80,000 attendees. 

The preparation of Memorial Stadium was an extensive, multiple-day process that involved laying down tarps to prevent damage to the field, hauling in construction materials and vehicles, and setting up the stage and sound systems. The 1985 Farm Aid concert utilized the same stage as the Live Aid benefit concert from a few months prior.

The Farm Aid stage was representative of  the event as a whole, hastily assembled and larger than life. The entire event was put together in just six weeks by show coordinators Willie Nelson, John Cougar Mellencamp, and Neil Young. According to testimony from stage construction staff, the construction of the stage began on September 17, 1985, with loads of steel and plywood being delivered to the north end of the memorial stadium football field along with Tyson chicken trucks. Farm Aid 1985 took place on September 22, meaning that the stage was built in just five days. The scale of this feat is further increased when the size of the stage is considered.

The Farm Aid stage had to hold some of the biggest acts of the time as well as their bands, chorus, and backstage team members meaning that it had to be quite large. The size of the stage was described as enormous by concertgoers and took up the entirety of the north end zone of the Memorial Stadium football field, making it around 160 feet long. The entirety of the football field was also covered with plywood and tarp in anticipation of the carriage and litter that followed Farm Aid. This construction miracle was completed thanks to stadium staff and contracted construction and service crews working around the clock before the start of the event. The stage was successfully constructed prior to the start of Farm Aid and withstood the hundreds of performers and staff and thousands of pounds of equipment that was required for the concert. The stage was quickly deconstructed shortly after the concert’s conclusion and is currently housed at an outdoor country bar in rural Illinois.