Neil & Pegi Young’s 25th Bridge School Benefit with Arcade Fire, Beck, Carlos Santana, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Mumford & Sons & more

Neil Young told a story on Sunday night on stage at his hometown annual Bridge School Benefit about how it all got started. He said it was 25 years ago, He and his wife Pegi were in their kitchen and Pegi just turned to Neil and said “we should start a school for Ben” (Neil & Pegi’s son who was born with Cerebral Palsy). Neil replied “how we gonna do that ?” and Pegi’s response then was “we’ll put on a concert with your friends…we’ll call Bruce” Neil chuckled and said sarcastically “ya honey, we’ll just call Bruce.” They did call Bruce Springsteen and he said yes right away and here we are 25 years later. An amazing weekend of music featuring an annual changing eclectic mix of artists, with rare moments where musicians play with other musicians and an epic encore with all the artists accompanying Neil Young for an emotional performance of The Youngbloods classic “Get Together” from the 60′s.

This Years special 25th anniversary featured a superb lineup with Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Eddie Vedder, Mumford & Sons, Beck, Norah Jones, Carlos Santana and Tony Bennett. Each artist performs for an average set time of 35 min, with Neil Young often sitting in with each artist to perform a cover song or a classic Neil Young song like when Arcade Fire sang “Helpless” with their fellow Canadian.

It was a magical weekend of great music, great people, all their for an incredible cause that is truly inspiring. I had a chance to meet and spend some time talking to many artists who I truly admire. Here’s a few of my favorite pics from backstage this weekend…