Unity farm owners disappointed but hopeful following Luke Bryan concert cancellation

“We’d love to keep the door open and make this a success one day.”

By PATRICK VARINE
TribLive

The rolling fields surrounding 1846 Farms in Unity were supposed to accommodate several thousand parked cars this month as fans arrived for the opening date of country star Luke Bryan’s 2026 Farm Tour.

A few stray portable toilets awaiting pickup and some deep ruts left by trailers crossing the land on the rainy morning of the concert were most of what remained a week after the Sept. 17 show was canceled.

“We had really hoped they were going to set the stage up the night before the show,” 1846 Farms owner Aleisha Stas said this week. “We probably could have gone ahead with the concert.”

The farm came in for some criticism on social media in the wake of the cancellation, but it was hardly the only venue affected. The rain caused problems at Bryan’s show the next night in Millersport, Ohio, and a Sept. 20 show in Michigan was also ultimately canceled.

“There was also a misconception that we’re not an actual working farm, and we are,” Stas said. “We grow sweet corn, field corn, sunflowers, barley, wheat, rye, so clearing this land will give us another working field, but we didn’t plant anything this year because of the concert. We needed to make sure we could accommodate up to 20,000 people and also have overflow parking just in case.”

Trying to set up a professional concert stage with all of the requisite trailer-hauling and equipment the same day, however, resulted in a torn-up concert field that organizers felt would not be safe for attendees.

“It wasn’t long after they made the cancellation announcement that everyone was packed up and off to the next venue,” Stas said.

The cancellation was disappointing for the Stas family, who spent months preparing the property for the show.

Below, see a crew member’s TikTok video of the massive mud track created by vehicles as they left 1846 Farms.

“Our original plan was actually to have it in a smaller field about 2 miles over, that would have held 8,000 to 10,000 people,” Stas said. “And then they sold that many tickets just during the presale, so Luke’s people reached out to us to say they needed a bigger space, and asked if we could clear some land to accommodate them.”

With donated equipment from nearby Cleveland Bros. in Murrysville and some funding help from Bryan’s logistics team, Stas and her family were able to clear a forested area of the farm and create a larger field to host the expected 15,000 or so fans.

“We cleared it about three months ago, took the brush and trees out, graded it and reseeded it,” Stas said, pointing to a different area of the concert field carpeted in new grass. “We got it done in time, but we just got such terrible weather the morning of the concert.”

Temporary venue challenge

In 2024, Josh Cunningham’s farm family in South Huntingdon had the opposite problem — when they hosted the Farm Tour, Westmoreland County had gone about a month without rainfall.

“We couldn’t get any grass to grow,” Cunningham said. “As opposed to having a muddy field, we had a dirt track with a little bit of green growth.”

The Cunninghams also did not have to clear any land.

“We got some significant rain the day of the concert, but we were working in fields that have had drainage installed since the ’70s,” Cunningham said. “And it was so dry, the ground pulled it right in.”

Cunningham has been in contact with Bryan’s team in recent years as they continue to scout locations for Farm Tour shows.

“They’ve never done a Farm Tour in the Northeast in the fall,” he said. “One thing that their head of promotions said is, once you get north of Pittsburgh, not only is it tough to find 100 flat acres, but there’s just no telling what the fall weather might be. It could snow in September.”

If there was a silver lining after the dark clouds forced the show’s cancellation, it’s that Stas was still able to pursue her goal of raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

“We still went ahead with a private pre-show party and sold Luke Bryan shirts, and a lot of people still came out and donated,” Stas said. “Basically, we tried to turn lemons into lemonade with the cards we were dealt.”

Ultimately, Stas and her family are still in discussions with concert organizers regarding some of the financial aspects, and declined to comment on the contract to host the event. Representatives for the Farm Tour could not be reached.

Stas said she hopes Bryan will return.

“He’s been doing the Farm Tour for a long time, and this isn’t the first time they’ve had weather issues,” she said. “We’d love to keep the door open and make this a success one day.”