Springsteen, Hasan Minhaj Headline Stand Up for Heroes 20th Anniversary Show

Bruce Springsteen, Hasan Minhaj, Jon Stewart and a roster of comedy heavyweights are set to headline the 20th anniversary edition of Stand Up for Heroes, the annual benefit concert supporting injured veterans and their families, on November 9 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. Tickets are already on sale for the show, which has grown from a single fundraising night into one of the country's most prominent platforms for veteran support since it first launched in 2007.

The benefit was co-founded that year after ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff was nearly killed in a 2006 roadside bomb attack in Iraq while embedded with U.S. troops, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Woodruff has said the annual event became one of the most meaningful nights of the year for him. Produced jointly by the New York Comedy Festival and the Bob Woodruff Foundation, the show has since attracted an eclectic run of performers over two decades, including Jerry Seinfeld, Stephen Colbert, John Mulaney, John Oliver, Jim Gaffigan, Seth Meyers, Ricky Gervais, Jeff Ross, Ray Romano, John Mayer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

A Bay Area Connection Runs Through the Lineup

This year's bill also features Alex Warren, Josh Johnson of The Daily Show, and wounded-veteran rock band The Resilient, whose members met while undergoing rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center through the MusiCorps program, according to VA Lebanon Health Care. The band's presence onstage puts a face on the veterans the benefit exists to serve, alongside the comedians and musicians drawing ticket buyers.

Comedian Hasan Minhaj, who grew up in Davis and attended UC Davis, will share the stage with fellow former Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng. The two are currently touring together under the banner Hasan Hates Ronny | Ronny Hates Hasan, and Minhaj is slated to perform four shows with Chieng before the fundraiser. Their tour brings them to the Bay Area for two nights at Oakland's Fox Theater on October 2 and 3, just weeks ahead of the New York benefit.

Springsteen's History With the Cause

Bruce Springsteen has performed at nearly every Stand Up for Heroes event since its inception and has made a tradition of personally auctioning off guitars, motorcycle rides, lasagna dinners and guitar lessons from the stage, with individual items in years past fetching up to $300,000 for veterans, according to Backstreets. His return to this year's lineup follows a run of shows in San Francisco, where he and the E Street Band performed at Chase Center in April 2026 during the Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, two years after the band's previous sold-out stand at the venue.

Since 2007, Stand Up for Heroes has raised more than $117 million to help veterans and military families, per the Chronicle's reporting. The 2024 edition alone generated over $29 million in a single night at David Geffen Hall, a total boosted when Craigslist founder Craig Newmark pledged $25 million to the Bob Woodruff Foundation onstage as part of a broader $100 million commitment to veterans' causes, according to the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

Where the Money Goes

That fundraising feeds a foundation-run support network that has expanded rapidly in recent years. The foundation's Got Your 6 Network now includes more than 400 partner organizations across all 50 states and U.S. territories, delivering care to an estimated 2.3 million military-connected individuals as of this year, per the foundation's own accounting. In May, the foundation distributed more than $6.5 million in spring grants across 38 programs nationwide aimed at expanding mental health care, emergency financial assistance and legal support for over 20,000 service members and military families.

The need behind those numbers is significant. A November 2025 survey of the foundation's partner organizations found that more than 80% reported severe physical or mental health needs among the veterans they serve, while 67% reported a critical lack of local mental health services for military populations. The foundation's work extends beyond the concert stage, too — as Hoodline has previously reported, it co-launched the USA Wheelchair Football League with the NFL in 2020, a program that has grown to 15 teams serving more than 700 disabled combat veterans and civilians nationwide.

For now, the spotlight returns to Lincoln Center, where the 20th anniversary show will bring together comedians, musicians and wounded veterans turned performers under one roof. Tickets for the November 9 benefit remain available, with organizers framing the night as both a celebration of the event's two-decade run and a continuation of the fundraising work that has come to define it.