Newport Folk Festival

Newport Folk Festival is the long weekend of late July at Fort Adams State Park, Newport, Rhode Island. The Fort Stage looks out on the harbor and the Claiborne Pell Bridge. Beside it are the Harbor, the Quad, the Bike, which runs on stationary bicycles, and the Foundation. The encyclopedia counts five. Tickets sell out before the bill is published, and the bill is released across the year, with gaps filled on the day. Jay Sweet runs it, executive director of the Newport Festivals Foundation. A 2019 photo caption calls him executive producer. The two jobs stay together. It was founded in 1959 by George Wein, Pete Seeger, Albert Grossman, Theodore Bikel and Oscar Brand. Pollstar writes Bikle. There were editions in 1959 and 1960, then every year from 1963 to 1969, and again from 1985. First came Freebody Park, then Festival Field. Since the return, the fort park. A foundation profile says 2020 did not happen, because of the coronavirus. The encyclopedia line writes continuous since 1985. The two sentences stay side by side.

At Freebody, in 1959, Joan Baez was eighteen and came on as Bob Gibson's guest. On 25 July 1965, at Festival Field, Bob Dylan closed with members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and played Like a Rolling Stone in public for the first time. Part of the crowd booed. Pete Seeger was among the unhappy. The account says the bulk of the people applauded. In 1969, Kris Kristofferson sang Me and Bobby McGee on Johnny Cash's stage. The same night, James Taylor did Carolina in My Mind in a young-performers showcase, and Wein cut the festival at fifteen minutes: the Apollo 11 landing had just been announced. In 1985, Robert L. Jones persuaded the Weins to reopen the folk festival. In 2008, Wein hired Sweet. In 2009, the fiftieth anniversary, Jones and Sweet worked together.

On Friday 25 July 2025, Paul Robicheau walks the fort for The Arts Fuse. A storm ordered shelter for an hour. Jessica Pratt lost her set. Kenny Loggins, at 77, got as far as I'm Alright and Footloose, then Danger Zone with Goose. On the Harbor, Kim Deal came back with a ten-piece, strings and horns: Coast, and Cannonball, from the Breeders. On the Quad, Yeah Yeah Yeahs closed with Karen O, a string quartet, piano and a second acoustic guitar. Isis, the band's own song, stayed hushed. Maps never swelled. Jack Antonoff closed with the Ally Coalition Talent Show. Weyes Blood sang Dream a Little Dream of Me. Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield, joined You Got It, by Roy Orbison. Rufus Wainwright chose Not Dark Yet. Hayley Williams sang Mirtazapine and I Melt with You. Because of the storm, the close ran half an hour past curfew.

On Saturday, Jesse Welles played acoustic before the main stage, with a mane Robicheau compares to early-eighties Metallica and lyrics he compares to early-sixties Dylan. For the encore, War Isn't Murder. He was named the 2025 John Prine Songwriting Fellow. The evening before, on a downtown field, the first charity softball game left him most valuable player: third base, a sharp swing, and a run sliding home. S. G. Goodman's team beat Kevin Morby's. Public Enemy closed the Quad. Chuck D and Flavor Flav, both in their sixties, with two DJs and a drummer. They went through 911 Is a Joke, Welcome to the Terrordome, with a Newport name-drop, and He Got Game, which takes For What It's Worth. They ended on Fight the Power. Flav stage-dived. On the Fort, Luke Combs sang You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive and The Times They Are A-Changin', his voice broke in Fathers & Sons, and he lifted it with Fox In the Henhouse and Fast Car. Sweet announced Sam Beam's birthday, of Iron & Wine, and the crowd sang to him. I'm With Her tucked in Expresso: that is how the review spells the Sabrina Carpenter song.

On Sunday, Lucius played the Harbor, too small for the queue. Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, with a trio rotating guitar, bass and drums. Mavis Staples came up, helped, for Go Home. Nathaniel Rateliff joined Everybody Hurts. Margo Price, in her own stretch, yelled "Fuck ICE" and sang Deportee, by Woody Guthrie, with Logan Ledger, before about 10,000 people. Remi Wolf, on Saturday at the Quad, had built a covers set: Saya Gray split Dreams, by Fleetwood Mac, and Maren Morris helped on Angel From Montgomery. Jeff Tweedy sang mostly Wilco tunes, among them Jesus, Etc. with Lucius and strings. On the Bike, Illiterate Light: Jeff Gorman played synth bass with his feet and Jake Cochran stepped off mid-song, rode a bicycle around the tent and came back to the kit.

Sunday's close was Songs for the People, steered by Josh Kaufman, of Bonny Light Horseman, with Phil Cook, Joe Russo and Bridget Kearney, of Lake Street Dive. John C. Reilly hosted. Alynda Segarra, of Hurray for the Riff Raff, sang Talkin' Bout a Revolution. Mary Chapin Carpenter and S. G. Goodman did All You Fascists Bound to Lose. The Swell Season sang Into the Mystic, with Snacktime's horns. Amy Helm sang Yes We Can Can, by Allen Toussaint, with Trombone Shorty. Rateliff did Hallelujah. Lucius led God Only Knows. Maren Morris and Lukas Nelson split Me and Bobby McGee. Welles, electric now at his Newport debut, sang Revolution and smashed the guitar on the stage. Nelson closed the loud stretch with Rockin' in the Free World: Stephen Wilson Jr. on distortion, Nelson on a clean lead. Matthew Logan Vasquez sang My Generation. Nearly everyone came back for Goodnight, Irene. The July 2026 bill, published by Pollstar on the opening day itself, stays a sales announcement. The weekend still comes back to Fort Adams.