Founding The Newport Folk Festival was started in 1959 by
George Wein, founder of the well-established Newport Jazz Festival and owner of
Storyville, a jazz club in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1958, Wein became aware of the growing
Folk Revival movement and began inviting folk artists such as
Odetta to perform on Sunday afternoons at Storyville. The afternoon performances consistently sold out and Wein began to consider the possibility of a "folk afternoon embedded within the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival". Wein envisioned the program to be "similar in scope and tone to the highly successful blues and gospel shows" that had taken place at the Jazz Festival in previous years. Wein asked Odetta,
Pete Seeger, and
the Weavers to perform in the afternoon in addition to
the Kingston Trio. Some in the jazz community accused Wein of crass commercialism in booking these groups because they deviated from, and had a larger following than, most jazz musicians of the time. This pressure, coupled with his various conversations with those in the folk community, made it clear to Wein that an afternoon program at the Jazz Festival would not suffice and that there was demand for a full folk festival. Aware of his own limitations in the folk scene, Wein asked
Albert Grossman, then Odetta's manager, to join him in planning and producing the festival. Grossman accepted and began working with Wein to book talent and organize the weekend. Pete Seeger was also involved with the founding of the festival.
Theodore Bikel and
Oscar Brand were also founders of the festival. The inaugural festival, held at Freebody Park, included Pete Seeger,
Earl Scruggs, the Kingston Trio,
John Jacob Niles,
Sonny Terry and
Brownie McGhee, Odetta, The
New Lost City Ramblers, and more. Perhaps the most notable performance was the surprise debut of the eighteen-year-old
Joan Baez, who was brought on as a guest of
Bob Gibson. The festival returned in 1960 and was expanded to include three nights. The lineup placed an emphasis on music diversity, booking performers from Africa, Scotland, Spain, Israel, and Ireland alongside "traditional" folk musicians such as Pete Seeger,
Ewan McColl,
John Lee Hooker,
Cisco Houston, and
Tommy Makem.
A tradition of protest The Newport Folk Festival has a rich connection to protest movements. In the '60s, the festival became a platform for artists who played a substantial part in the civil rights and anti-war movements, including Pete Seeger,
Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez,
Tom Paxton,
Sweet Honey in the Rock, and
the Staple Singers, among many others. In the mid-80s, a new generation of artists—from the
Indigo Girls to
Tom Morello—also provided keen social commentary from the Newport stage, advocating for women's rights, the LGBTQ community, peace, climate awareness, clean air and water, and the continued call for civil rights activism. In 1988, Ben & Jerry joined forces with Wein's Festival Productions, Inc. to sponsor the event through 1999, a partnership that helped the festival thrive and reinforced its progressive identity.
Civil Rights Movement In 1962, two young members of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed a gospel vocal quartet named the
Freedom Singers. And in 1962, Pete and
Toshi Seeger assisted the Freedom Singers in organizing a nationwide collegiate tour. As a result, the civil rights movement became deeply embraced by the folk music community. In 1963, the Freedom Singers performed on the first night of the Newport Folk festival, and on the second night Joan Baez joined SNCC activists and roughly 600 festival-goers on a march through Newport. The crowd walked past the Bellevue Avenue mansions and into Touro Park, where SNCC's executive secretary
James Forman and Freedom Singers leader
Cordell Reagon delivered speeches, rallying support for the
March on Washington scheduled for the following March. For the final performance on Friday, Wein had scheduled
Peter, Paul, and Mary. But under the persuasion of Albert Grossman, who was managing Peter, Paul, and Mary, Wein decided to allow
Bob Dylan (whom Grossman was also managing) to close the night. After Peter, Paul, and Mary finished their afternoon set, Wein announced that they would reappear at the end of the evening. Dylan performed a set consisting of particularly topical songs: "With God on Our Side", "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues", and "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall". Peter, Paul, and Mary then returned and performed an encore of "
Blowin' in the Wind". Amidst a "deafening roar of applause" they brought to the stage Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Theo Bikel, and the Freedom Singers. The singers stood in a single line facing the audience with crossed arms and clasped hands and began to sing a variation on the Baptist hymn "I'll Overcome Some Day". The hymn's new incarnation -- "
We Shall Overcome" -- had become an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.
Revival of Mississippi John Hurt In 1928,
Mississippi John Hurt, a self-taught amateur musician and farmer, recorded 13 songs for Okeh Records which failed to achieve commercial success. Believing his musical career to be over, Hurt continued farming, apparently thinking little of his brief recording gig. Post WWII, few records cut by southern musicians in the 1920s were commercially available. Hurt's records were particularly rare, since few had been manufactured in the first place. But Harry Smith, a member of a tiny subculture of obsessive, cranky collectors, put two John Hurt cuts on his influential 1952
Anthology of American Folk Music prompting many blues hobbyists to begin searching for him. In 1963, Tom Hoskins and Mike Stewart acquired a tape of Hurt's Avalon Blues through their informal network of tape traders. Hurt had recorded Avalon Blues at the end of a week-long stay in New York that spanned Christmas 1928. Apparently homesick in the big city, Hurt included a line about his home in Avalon being always on his mind. Hoskins and Stewart were able to locate Avalon and track Hurt down. After asking Hurt to perform, to ensure he was actually who he claimed to be, Hoskins convinced Hurt to move to Washington, D.C., and embark on a national tour. The tour culminated on Saturday evening of the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, when Mississippi John Hurt performed alongside Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, and
John Lee Hooker for a blues workshop at the
Newport Casino. The performance is considered to be a seminal moment for the folk revival and caused Hurt to rise to fame.
Johnny Cash, who was a major influence on Dylan, had played an electric guitar at the 1964 Newport Festival. A letter which Cash wrote to the editor of
Broadside which called for the people at the Newport Folk Festival to "shut up and let him sing" shortly before the 1964 festival had a major influence on Dylan's shift in the direction for his musical career as well. Despite the musical transition, Dylan's growing status within the larger
counterculture ensured that his place in the expanding movement would remain secure. Dylan did not return to Newport until 2002, when he played a headlining performance while wearing a wig and fake beard.
Johnny Cash introduces Kris Kristofferson In 1969, the
Johnny Cash troupe was to perform on opening night of the festival. Cash had recently become aware of
Kris Kristofferson, a young, relatively unknown country singer-songwriter, and convinced George Wein to allow Kristofferson to join him onstage. Kristofferson's performance of "
Me and Bobby McGee" and other songs gave him a launch into his musical career. The 1969 festival also included the debut festival performance of
James Taylor, who performed "
Carolina in My Mind" to a standing ovation during a "young performers" showcase. However, Taylor only performed for 15 minutes before Wein ended the festival early with the announcement that
Apollo 11 had landed on the Moon.
End of Folk Festival, hiatus, and return The Folk Festival did not return to Newport in 1970, due to financial issues and local controversies involving the Newport Jazz Festival. Following a riot at the jazz festival in 1971, Wein moved his jazz festival to New York, but the folk festival was dormant for over a decade. In 1981, Wein returned to Newport with his Jazz Festival at a new waterfront site: Fort Adams State Park. Robert L. Jones, Wein's longtime producer, ran the shows. Jones worked for Wein as both a road manager and producer of jazz and blues events. But his life in music began in Boston folk clubs with artists such as Joan Baez,
Tom Rush,
Eric von Schmidt, and Bob Dylan, and he first came to Wein's attention as a talent scout, traveling across the country with folklorist
Ralph Rinzler to bring undiscovered artists of all kinds to the Newport stage. It was Jones' dream to revive the folk event, and in 1985, he persuaded the Weins to bring back the Newport Folk Festival.
1985-2006 With Jones at the helm, Newport Folk programs honored traditional forms of American roots music (blues, bluegrass, Cajun, gospel, and more) alongside a wide range of contemporary songwriters, classic Americana bands such as
Little Feat and
The Band, world music artists, early jam bands, AAA artists, Irish and British folk-rock, Mardi Gras Indians, and alt-country groups. The festival inaugurated a Friday night concert, established Song Circles with songwriters such as
Shawn Colvin,
Sarah McLachlan, and
Buddy Miller in the round, and expanded to three stages. Other groundbreaking sets included a teenaged
Alison Krauss's major festival debut, iconic blues performances from
B.B. King,
Susan Tedeschi, and
Bonnie Raitt, early incarnations of the Indigo Girls,
Mary-Chapin Carpenter, and Joan Baez as Four Voices in Harmony, classic performances by Weir & Wasserman,
Crosby, Stills & Nash,
Joan Armatrading,
Elvis Costello,
Willie Nelson, and
Wilco, and in 2005, an extended collaborative set with Bright Eyes,
Jim James, and
M. Ward. The festival sold out on only a few occasions in those years, but remained commercially strong enough to continue growing and attract strong audiences for both traditional and contemporary artists.
Michelle Shocked and V-J Day protest The Newport Folk Festival has, throughout various points in its history, remained connected to protest movements. In the 1960s, the festival played a substantial part in the civil rights movement. In the early '80s, the Festival was one of the first festivals to serve as a platform for climate change protest. In the 1990s, playing on
Victory Day (originally
Victory over Japan Day or V-J Day) folk musician
Michelle Shocked asked the entire standing audience to drop to the ground on cue to show what it would look like when crowds died on "Hiroshima Day." Rick Massimo, music writer, recalls Dylan took the stage in “a white cowboy hat, a fake beard, and a long, stringy-haired wig” in what seemed a wry acknowledgment of the legions of music journalists and photographers who came to document his return.
Films and books In 2005, alternative rock band
The Pixies came to Newport with an acoustic performance, a concept that referenced Dylan's going electric. The set was recorded and turned into a feature film directed by Michael B Borofsky, titled Pixies: Acoustic: Live in Newport. In 2013, NAKA producers Alyson Young and Beverly Penninger released The Newport Effect, a documentary exploring the impact of the Newport Folk Festival since its inception in 1959. The film features interviews, performances, and behind-the-scenes footage of the event. Narrated by Joan Armatrading, with segment narrators
Rosanne Cash,
Michael Doucet,
Steve Earle,
Angelique Kidjo,
Pokey LaFarge, Tom Morello,
Mavis Staples, and
Lucinda Williams. In 2003, Da Capo Press published
Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, a memoir by George Wein and coauthor Nate Chinen. In 2017, Wesleyan University Press published
I Got A Song, A History of the Newport Folk Festival by Rick Massimo.
Establishment of foundation The Newport Folk Festival has existed in various forms since its creation; founded as a not-for-profit, the festival became a for-profit in the mid-1980s. However, in 2011, the festival announced it would return to its non-profit status under the umbrella of the Newport Festivals Foundation. The Foundation not only strived to sustain the Newport Folk and Newport Jazz Festival, but also expand the impact of its Festivals through educational initiatives that celebrate innovation while preserving the deep traditions inherent in jazz and folk music.
50th celebration By 2006, after an autoimmune syndrome left Jones partially paralyzed, he was no longer able to produce the festival. In 2008, Executive Producer George Wein hired Jay Sweet as an associate of the festival. Sweet brought the
Black Crowes and
Trey Anastasio, frontman of
Phish, as headliners and other artists on the bill included Stephen Marley and Damian Marley, sons of reggae icon
Bob Marley. The Festival was well attended and received favorable press, despite folk purists questioning the modernization of the festival. In 2009, Wein asked Jones and his team to work with Sweet for the 50th anniversary of the festival, and their collaboration resulted in a multi-generational celebration.
New era The success of the 2009 festival marked a new era in the festival's history. Under Sweet's direction, the festival has reclaimed its place at the center of American music, with surprise sets by
Dolly Parton and
Joni Mitchell among other standout performances. In 2011, the two-day festival sold out Saturday, and in 2012, the festival sold out both days. In 2013, the festival expanded to three days and sold out both Saturday and Sunday. In 2014, the festival sold out all three days, months in advance. As of 2023, the festival has sold out every year since.
65 Revisited In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Bob Dylan going electric at Newport, the Festival scheduled a program titled 65 Revisited on the final night of the 2015 festival. The program's details and performers were kept secret before the performance - prompting various rumors including the return of Bob Dylan. Instead, the program featured an array of more contemporary musicians, including
Taylor Goldsmith of
Dawes,
Gillian Welch and
David Rawlings,
Willie Watson,
Hozier and Klara Soderberg of First Aid Kit, John McCauley and Ian O'Neil of
Deer Tick, Robyn Hitchcock and the
Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans. The ensemble performed a collection of Dylan's material, ending the performance with "
Rainy Day Women No. 12 and 35".
COVID-19 pandemic The 2020 edition of the festival was canceled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Artists who were scheduled to perform at the festival were invited to return for the 2021 edition. Instead of its typical format, the 2021 Newport Folk Festival was instead formatted as two three-day events in July featuring performances, storytelling, and workshops.
2022: Joni Mitchell surprise appearance The 2022 festival marked a return to normal operations. A highlight was when
Brandi Carlile introduced a surprise appearance by
Joni Mitchell as the festival's closing act. This was the 78-year-old Mitchell's first full-length public performance since the early 2000s and her first appearance at the festival since 1969. ==Programming style==