“I Feel Like My Ancestors Came Here”: Why musicians keep coming back to Newport Folk Festival

Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff captured something truly essential when I asked her what Newport Folk Festival means to her. “As a student of folk music, I always get the chills when I come here,” she told me. “I feel like my ancestors came here.”

For many attendees, Newport is the music festival, the one they’ve been attending for decades. And for the musicians invited to perform, it’s their Super Bowl. Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Mavis Staples, Dolly Parton, and perhaps most famously Bob Dylan have all experienced career highs at this festival.

Newport Folk is a bright spot in the music industry. It’s a festival designed to celebrate what we as fans appreciate the most about live music: the community and connectedness it fosters.

If you’re a fan of live music, you don’t need me to describe the joys of seeing your favorite artist perform. Recall for a moment your fondest concert memory, then picture it replicated a dozen or more times over one weekend. That’s the Newport Folk Festival.

This year’s lineup included Jeff Tweedy, Margo Price, Alex G, Waxahatchee, Remi Wolf, Maren Morris, MJ Lenderman, Yeah Yeah Yeahs … just gawk at the full lineup here or skip below for their photos. Another special thing about Newport: it’s not just the artists announced that you can expect to see. Matt Berninger of The National performed a surprise set on the smallest stage he’s probably played in 25 years, and Jack Antonoff brought Rufus Wainwright, Weyes Blood, and Hayley Williams out to feature in his Bleachers set.

Talking with artists throughout the weekend made one thing clear: Newport’s impact goes beyond the music. Time and again, they came back to the same idea: Being together in person can create real change during difficult times.

“Supporting live music, being in a crowd, congregating,” said Jeff Tweedy, “I think is a little bit of an antidote to the fear and anxiety most people are experiencing.”

Newport repeat performer SG Goodman writes about her fears of AI and advancing technology separating people from the natural world in her new album Planting by the Signs, and she told me that Newport had become a haven for her and her band. “We’ve become friends with the actual community here. It just goes to show how much this town supports musicians and the arts.”

What’s comforting for so many of the artists who play Newport, is that the audience there is receptive not only to their music, but the values they hold. “Newport is kind of the perfect audience for songs that have more topical lyrics, or songs with a message,” Margo Price told me. Specifically her song “All American Made” which criticizes the United States’ war profiteering, has had the strongest crowd reaction at Newport. “I’ve played that song all over America. I’ve played it all over Europe. Newport is one of the audiences that really receives that song well.”

Alynda Segarra added, “I think people want it,” in regards to social messaging. “I think people want to talk about it.” As a Puerto Rican, a cause she holds close to her heart is immigration for Latin and all people. With her time on stage, she wants to emphasize the harm that ICE is doing, and “remind people that are not directly affected that this is happening.”

The very last set of the festival was a Newport Folk showcase. Many of the artists who performed throughout the weekend including Lucius, Jesse Welles, The Swell Season, Bonny Light Horseman, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and the artists I quoted above covered revolutionary American folk music to drive home the point that their brand of music is meant to change contemporary culture. On-the-nose tunes like Woodie Guthrie’s “All You Fascists Bound to Lose” and Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution” were met with joyous dancing and cheering from the comparatively sober festival crowd.

While I’m clearly inclined to gush about Newport Folk, I can’t honestly report on it without describing a slight feeling of cognitive dissonance. Though the Rhode Island landscape is breathtaking, this fest “for the people” has a high barrier to entry with exclusive waitlists, is surrounded by old-money mansions, and doesn’t reflect the diversity of the music it celebrates. Those factors aside, if you left this festival having not experienced joy, please seek professional help.

After all, Jeff Tweedy said it best, that live music is “a time proven strategy for transcending the political moment,” and that gathering gives us the strength to “survive and resist.”