Newport Folk Festival has come and gone and Allston Pudding was there with 10,000 other lucky attendees to one of New England’s most popular yearly music events. It did not disappoint.

It was REALLY hot this year at the festival, leading to one of our headliners being the water refill stations and shade tents on-site, but that aside, there was a ton of amazing music, collaborations and memorable moments at this year’s festival.

Newport Folk Festival always does a great job of highlighting a bunch of up-and-coming or buzz artists, some favorites who come every year, as well as usually sprinkling in some massive surprises for day-closing sets. This year the festival brought out two legends unannounced to wow the crowd and complement each day’s sunset. Day 2 brought out the Paul Simon to sing 4 numbers with a cast of Folk Festival regulars and Day 3 was closed out by Joni Mitchell’s first full performance in two decades alongside close friend, Brandi Carlile and many others. It doesn’t get much better than that for a proper closing to Newport.

We highlighted a couple of acts leading up to the festival that we were excited to see and we’re happy to say that none of them disappointed. Check out our preview coverage for the festival for a recap of some of those artists here.

Some of our favorites/surprises once we made it to the Fort (outside of our preview selections) included: John Craigie, Taj Mahal, Courtney Barnett, Arny Margret, Madi Diaz, Black Opry Revue, Dakhabrakha, Joy Oladokun, and The Roots.

Dakhabrakha notably hail from Kyiv and played a particularly moving set with Ukrainian flags waving in the audience. Newport Folk Festival has always been home to art that raises awareness for injustices and brings those from all walks of life together. There were plenty of non-dry eyes in the crowd for this powerful performance of unique music from across the globe.

Dates for next year’s festival have just been announced and the event will be taking place July 28th through the 30th. Keep an eye on the official festival site for further information and lots of great content throughout the year.

Photos Below

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3: