The sun was shining, the boats lined up in the harbor, many Grateful Dead and John Prine shirts were seen: it was time for Newport Folk Festival once again. This year’s weather cooperated in a big way, no worrying about heat stroke, getting drenched, or any anticipated sets getting cut. There’s always one worry that most of us in the media tent have though, and that’s missing the big surprise guests of the weekend. However, I’m happy to say that we’ve got them all covered. Much like last year’s festival, there was more emphasis on indie and rock acts while still staying true to its roots of folk and protest. Let’s take a deeper dive into the lineup and highlights of the fest.

Friday

This day, for me, was all about girl power, as each act that stood out had a female voice. To start, Infinity Song kicked off the festival weekend with a magical set full of harmonies and dancing. Fleetwood Mac covers at Newport Folk are pretty much a given, but I’m never going to complain about it. Infinity Song opened their set with a rendition of “Dreams” that felt quiet at first, but slowly built momentum until a fiery end had the Harbor stage twirling in their jorts. Shortly after at the Bike stage, Belle Blue brought some indie-punk vibes to the Fort. Sporting a pink babydoll dress and combat boots, Blue sang and yelled and stomped over the stage in the blinding sunlight. The set was a great introduction before some other acts of the day that were more energetic. Speaking of which, two other sets that were the highlight of my day were Wednesday and Courtney Barnett. Lead vocalist of Wednesday, Karly Hartzman, has an “I don’t give a shit” aura that’s infectious. She even stuck it to some of the Phish fans in the audience with a performance of “Phish Pepsi” which mentions getting high and not enjoying the jam band. Courtney Barnett shredded on guitar during her powerful performance. She spun, kicked, and bent backwards while delivering great vocals. On the quieter side of things, Lucy Dacus played songs new and old. She invited guests Hayley Williams, Brandon Flowers, and Madi Diaz to sit on a big blue throne and join her for a couple of covers. The legendary Ms. Lauryn Hill was the second-to-last set of the night, and there was quite a bit of a wait for her to perform. However, once she got on stage for her acoustic set, the crowd was on their feet and grooving, and seeing her in such an intimate setting felt like a once-in-a-lifetime moment. This all led up to the headline of the night: Hayley Williams. The lead singer of Paramore brought out a star-studded cast of musicians to perform with her, including This is Lorelei, Karly Hartzman, Liam Benzvi, Joy Oladokun, Annie DiRusso, Jenny Lewis, Kelsey Lu, Lucy Dacus, Remi Wolf, Madi Diaz, and Jack Antonoff. Tracks included those off of Williams’ third solo record, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, as well as the live debut of “Leave It Alone” and “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris”, two songs from Petals for Armor and Flowers for Vases. It’s common knowledge that Williams is a powerhouse vocalist, but it’s still fresh and surprising each time she performs. In classic Newport Folk fashion, the set ended with Bill Withers’ Lean on Me, featuring all of the friends that were brought out as well as others that were set to perform on the latter two days, like Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy and Medium Build. This day set a tone that was hard to follow up. 

Saturday

This day was the most low-key of the weekend. However, there were a few heavy-hitters that provided some great performances. A surprising stand-out was Leif Vollebekk, a Canadian singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. You can tell that this man just LOVES music. It’s apparent that he felt it in his bones as soon as he started to play. It’s hard to tell from photographs of the set, but he would jerk around with every note and engage with every musician on stage with him. It was hypnotizing to watch. The same can be said for Medium Build who played later on in the day. Not only was he passionate about his music, but his banter was entertaining as hell. It’s always fun to watch someone call out the wealthy in a tent full of rich people. Lizzy McAlpine had her Newport Folk debut this year and debuted some new songs for the crowd. She also brought out Tiny Habits for some beautiful harmonies.

Sunday

There are quite a few vocalists with unique voices that have risen up recently. The first one that comes to mind is Cameron Winter of Geese, who had his solo debut at the Fort last year. This year, it was Dove Ellis’ turn, who recently supported Geese on a tour run, funnily enough. The Irish singer-songwriter had a quiet presence to his set, but his voice did enough on its own. “Pale Song” was a beautiful track to hear live and quickly captured the attention of the audience. Over on the Bike stage, Sally Rose from Virginia brought some of the Friday riot grrrl energy to the final day of the festival. They came out with an electric orange suit with hair to match and played alongside Illiterate Light’s Jake Cochran and Palmyra’s Sasha Landon. Not too long after, strongboi hit the Harbor stage with a jazzy, synth-heavy set. Comprised of Alice Phoebe Lou and Ziv Yamin, strongboi was a genuinely fun watch and had a lot of people grooving to their disco-esque tunes. Then, the Fort was treated to, in my opinion, the best set of the weekend: CMAT and the Very Sexy CMAT Band. If you look up “charisma” in the dictionary, CMAT’s portrait should be slapped right next to it. She controlled the stage with such a comedic, confident force. When walking around the festival afterwards, it was the only thing people were talking about (aside from the rumor that Bono’s boat was in the harbor. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.) Another highly regarded set of the evening was that of Tom Morello, and man was this set was a rollercoaster. There was political messaging, covers of songs by Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, and Audioslave, but the big highlight of the set had to be his son, Roman Morello. The 15-year-old shreds on guitar like he had been playing just as long as his dad. His cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mr. Crowley” was incredible, and you could feel the pride coming out of Tom as he played alongside him. There was also a medley of Rage Against the Machine guitar riffs, and the head-banging from the crowd made it seem like necks were going to snap. To round out the night, Newport Folk celebrated the end of Nathaniel Rateliff’s residency as Steward of the festival. What the crowd expected was the typical closing set treatment of multiple artists jamming together to end the night. What they didn’t expect was for Rateliff to introduce someone to the Fort stage for the first time: Dave Matthews. I can admit that I’m not a huge jam band fan, so Dave Matthews Band has never been my cup of tea. I can also admit that the stripped-down Matthews set was fantastic. It was just him and his guitar for about five songs until he invited Brandi Carlile up for “Papertown”. Afterwards, Rateliff returned and invited a few more musicians up to perform with him. Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Courtney Marie Andrews, John C. Reilly, Brandon Flowers, Joan Baez, and Mavis Staples all came out for various covers by artists such as Bob Dylan, Carole King, and Kevin Morby. 

Check out the rest of Emily’s photos below