On a sunny, dragonfly-filled weekend, Newport, Rhode Island’s Fort Adams State Park hosts the 65th Newport Folk Festival. Tevas, Birkenstocks, and Hokas made up the majority of shoes lined up to get through security. Upon entrance, the boats, paddle boards and kayaks are all huddled together in the water, forming the first crowd visible at the festival. As one expects at this festival, the Yerba Mate stand was sold out by the early afternoon. Jewelry, food, clothing, and radio vendors lined the path to Fort Stage, the festival’s main stage. Just before the main stage, you’ll find the Harbor Stage and the entrance to the Quad Stage.
The Quad Stage is inside Fort Adams, with towering stone walls surrounding the inner space. On Friday, the main stage hosts a notable afternoon lineup: Wednesday, a highly anticipated To Be Announced set, MUNA and Adrienne Lenker. Underneath the stage tent, people can sit in chairs if they snag one or stand within the allotted area. Outside of the tent, attendees set up chairs and blankets on the grass, lounging and taking in the atmosphere of the historic festival.
Hozier
Wednesday starts the afternoon at Quad, playing an impassioned set that fills the entire quad with sound. The set ends with guttural screams from vocalist Karly Hartzman, which she warns the crowd about before starting “Bull Believer”. Once the stage was in transition, the inside of the fort flooded with people eager to find out who the To Be Determined act would be. The names Paul Simon and Beck came from a group trying to guess who it is. Soon after, the man who guessed Beck whoops amongst a roar of cheers while the singer takes the stage as a surprise
After arriving at the festival via police escort due to an accident, Beck puts on a show full of folk classics. He claims to have made the setlist based on some of the great historical moments from the festival. Some selections on his setlist include “Maggie’s Farm” by Bob Dylan, “Other Side of This Life” by Fred Neil, and “Waiting for a Train” by Jimmie Rodgers. Just as he begins his hit “Loser,” a swarm of dragonflies appears over the crowd out of nowhere. Between the crowd’s vocals joining Beck and dragonflies everywhere, the folk festival theme was on full display.
Muna takes the stage after Beck for their first Newport Folk appearance, playing a selection of their slower songs, which they describe as their “most Newport setlist”. Guitarists Jo Maskin and Noami McPherson support vocalist Katie Gavin with impressive harmonies and instrumentals. The band also has Katie play one of her solo songs before her set on the bike-powered stage on Saturday. For “Anything But Me,” they play the same arrangement from their NPR Tiny Desk concert, which features gracefully layered harmonies. To end the set, they play their hit “Silk Chiffon” and have McPherson take over on Phoebe Bridgers. Due to the festival’s frequent surprise guests, I couldn’t help but peek at the side of the stage to check if Bridgers was waiting to enter.
Adrianne Lenker enters the stage shortly after, sitting calmly on a chair with her acoustic guitar and getting right to tuning. She puts her solo music aside and begins with Big Thief’s “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You,” the title track from the band’s most recent album. Lenker continues to focus on Big Thief by playing some unreleased songs she’s been working on for the band and welcoming bandmate and long-term friend Buck Meek back to the Quad Stage after his set earlier in the day. Meek and Adrienne reflect on the duration of their friendship, mentioning their time living in a van and writing songs together. She also entertains the crowd by playing “anything” and “not a lot, just forever,” enchanting those within the Quad and eliciting a low hum of the crowd softly singing along. Her unique vocals and impressive finger-picking abilities make her set a definite standout.
Friday ends with a captivating set by Hozier that receives a stunning sunset backdrop. Hozier is joined by his talented band that effortlessly translates his music to live versions, which pairs nicely with his unwavering, spacious vocals. The setlist is full of his hits, but surprisingly focuses on his earlier work, such as “Cherry Wine,” “Jackie and Wilson,” and “From Eden.” For “Work Song,” he brings out his tour opener and fellow Fort Stage performer Allison Russell to perform the second verse and harmonize. During “Would That I,” Hozier’s belting stretches beyond the crowd and sounds like it will make the attendees in the water just outside the park feel as though they are front row. To bolster the guest list, Russell returns alongside Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, The Lumineers, Madison Cunningham, Nathaniel Rateliff and others to perform “The Weight” by The Band. With a handful of the guests remaining on stage, Hozier finishes with a captivating cover of Pete Seeger’s “We Shall Overcome.”
Joan Baez
Though only the first day of the historic festival, the stacked lineup and all-day sunshine made for a great start to the weekend. Attendees gambled by selling out tickets before the lineup even dropped, but were overjoyed by the outcome. With a surprise appearance from Beck, two opportunities to see some Big Thief live and a Hozier set full of notable guests, Friday was an incredible way to start celebrating the festival’s 65th anniversary.
Emily
If you were wondering why Newport was filled with traffic and the smell of sunscreen last weekend, Newport Folk Festival settled into its normal spot at Fort Adams for its 65th anniversary. Thousands of attendees shuffled their way into the entrance, some waiting up to 90 minutes in the heat (though the wait was remedied on the third day). Once inside, the grounds were full of vendors, beach blankets, and lawn chairs. As always, the music was well worth the wait. This year, the big acts were the incredibly talented Hozier, legendary folk icons Joan Baez and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, and the mysterious set composed of Conan and “Real Musicians”. However, some real gems were hidden in the undercard. To be fair, it’s hard not to find an enjoyable set to vibe to throughout all three days.
Newport Folk is a great hub for music discovery, even outside of the folk genre. Wednesday and Friko brought some much-needed energy to the Harbor stage, while La Lom and Reyna Tropical heated up their stages with some Latin flair.
Newport is also notorious for its special guests. Beck was one of many surprise sets of the weekend, playing some classics from his album Odelay. Mavis Staples joined Hozier during his headlining spot to perform their song together “Nina Cried Power”. Rising star Sierra Ferrell invited comedian slash musician John C. Reilly to join her for a tune. For the much-anticipated Conan set, the late-night host brought along Langhorne Slim, Nick Lowe, and a familiar face of the Folk family, Jack White. Unfortunately, press wasn’t allowed to snap a photo of any special guests, but Emily Gardner captured some of the our favorite acts of the weekend. Check out the photos below.
Check out all of Emily’s photos below.
