Photo of Joe Walsh by Philip Macias
(BELMONT, NY) -- Joe Walsh, multi-GRAMMY Award winning musician and Kennedy Center Honor recipient and VetsAid, his national 501(c)3 non-profit veterans organization, have announced the lineup and on-sale date for their eighth annual festival offering. VetsAid 2024 will feature full sets from Eric Church, Toto, Kool & The Gang and Walsh himself. The show will take place at 7:00pm on Monday, November 11, 2024 at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, NY, located 30 minutes from Penn Station or Grand Central via LIRR.
VetsAid 2024 marks the show’s return to the East Coast since its 2017 inaugural offering in Northern Virginia and it also serves as a homecoming for Walsh’s wife and VetsAid co-founder Marjorie Walsh, herself a native of Rosedale, Queens and a proud daughter of a WWII Air Force veterans and Purple Heart recipient.
Tickets will be available and on-sale to the public on Friday, August 16, 2024 at 10:00am at www.ticketmaster.com and be priced starting at $54.50. Further details will be available at www.vetsaid.org.
“VetsAid 2024 is all about family, friends and faith.” Walsh explains. “I honor my wife’s family and their legacy of service in her home borough of Queens. I honor and thank my extraordinary friends Eric Church (the Chief!), Toto, and Kool & the Gang. I honor our collective faith in the power of music to bring fans of diverse backgrounds together in celebration and our faith in the power of love to unite us all as Americans to support a population of veterans that has sacrificed so much and asked for so little in return. We’ve got something for everyone at VetsAid this year - country, pop, rock, funk and gospel - so all aboard!”
Now in its eighth year, VetsAid hosted its inaugural show on September 20, 2017 with a concert at the EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, VA featuring performances by Walsh, Zac Brown Band, Keith Urban and Gary Clark Jr. In 2018, VetsAid traveled to Tacoma, WA with a sell-out event featuring Walsh, Don Henley, James Taylor, Chris Stapleton, Haim and special guest Ringo Starr. In 2019, Houston, TX welcomed VetsAid for a blockbuster show with Walsh, ZZ Top, The Doobie Brothers, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Sheryl Crow and Brad Paisley. The pandemic moved the festival online in 2020 and 2021 with intimate performances from Eddie Vedder, James Hetfield, Gwen Stefani and nearly 40 other artists from across the United States as well as the debut of new music from Walsh in his studio available via livestream. VetsAid 2022 was an instant sell-out all-Ohio affair with blistering sets from a newly reunited James Gang, NIN, The Black Keys and The Breeders with special guest Dave Grohl in Joe’s hometown of Columbus, OH. VetsAid 2023 took place in San Diego and featured performances by Jeff Lynne’s ELO, The Way on Drugs, the Flaming Lips, Lucius and special guest Stephen Stills. VetsAid is committed to curating an exclusive once-in-a-lifetime festival lineup in a different American city each year with a large veteran and military population.
As every year, all net proceeds from the concert will go directly to the veterans’ services charities selected through a rigorous vetting process. Veterans services organizations in New York and New Jersey are encouraged to apply now at www.vetsaid.org/grants. To date, VetsAid has disbursed nearly $3,500,000.
Veterans and their wellbeing have always been important to Walsh, a Gold Star son himself. His father was a flight instructor for the first US operational jet powered aircraft, the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, and died while stationed and on active duty on Okinawa when Walsh was 20 months old.
Walsh aims to use this platform to raise funds and awareness for the still urgent and significant needs of our returning soldiers and their families. Through the establishment of VetsAid and this annual benefit concert, he aims to give back to those who have given so much in sacrifice for this country.
UBS Arena is made for music and built for hockey. New York's newest premier entertainment and sports venue and proud home of the New York Islanders is developed in partnership with Oak View Group, the New York Islanders, and Jeff Wilpon. The state of the art arena has welcomed top artists from around the globe since opening in November 2021 including Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Stapleton, Dua Lipa, Drake, Harry Styles, Marc Anthony and Suga. The venue delivers an unmatched live entertainment experience for guests including clear sightlines and premier acoustics.
UBS Arena is at the forefront of sustainability, recently achieving Zero Waste TRUE Silver certification in May 2024 in addition to its LEED Green Building Certification and carbon neutrality for operations.
Located on the historic grounds of Belmont Park, UBS Arena is located just 30 minutes by LIRR from Grand Central or Penn Station and is easily accessible from across the region via mass transit or car. To plan your trip, please visit UBSArena.com/plan-your-trip.