The 2024 Newport Folk Festival, in its 65th year as the premiere folk festival of the northeast, has officially come to a close. Gorgeous weather, amazing music, and the positive spirit of the folk fest were in lavish supply this past weekend at Fort Adams in Newport. Besides a few hiccups in terms of the security lines to get into the festival on Friday and Saturday, Newport could teach a masterclass on setting up the proper infrastructure and planning it takes to run a festival. Every year, even in the years following covid, Newport receives top marks for its planning and the ability to handle any situation with safety and fun at the forefront.
The mood was higher than ever as Sunday kicked off. Bluegrass supergroup, New Dangerfield, which includes multiple Newport alums, jump started the festivities at the Fort with a mix of traditional folk and original songs. Directly after on the mainstage, Newport favorites, The Oh Hellos, took the stage together for the first time in a while. Their infectious energy and the way they completely envelope the Fort stage showed why they keep returning year after year.
The best music of the day continued to happen at the Fort Stage, as Madison Cunningham and Andrew Bird expertly played the 1973 Buckingham Nicks album from top to bottom – a truly once in a lifetime set that seems to only be possible in a setting like Newport.
The set that kicked the energy up on Sunday came in the form of Thao performing at the Harbor Stage. No stranger to the Newport folk festival, Thao Nguyen performed her hits as well as some unreleased new material and even sang her way through the dancing crowd. From there the party headed over to the Fort Stage where Sierra Ferrell, in a full bustle and gorgeous period dress, commanded the Fort Stage from the first notes of her fiddle on “I Can Drive You Crazy”. Guests who joined Ferrell on stage included Gillian Welch and actor John C. Reilly, who even attended one of the after show concerts in town.
Back at the Quad Stage (and despite some early technical difficulties) hip hop legends De La Soul opened up the pit, allowing a level of dance and energy that is sometimes missed with the block of chairs in front of the stage. These are the type of sets that keep Newport fresh while also staying grounded in its roots. With most of the chairs removed, the next act, Dropkick Murphys, called for the first most pit in recent Newport Folk Festival history. Opening up their set with “The Boys Are Back”, it is obvious the band revels any time they perform anywhere in New England. The set was so much fun it could have easily closed out a day at the fest on the mainstage.
As Newport has conditioned its attendees in recent years, the air was thick with anticipation as to what the closing set with Conan O’Brien would entail. Backed by Newport favorites Dawes, O’Brien was more than able to hold his own as the night’s band leader.
There were a few hiccups in the form of sound issues and a skit by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog that didn’t quite land, but O’Brien made sure to supply a steady stream of guests (including Langhorne Slim and Nick Lowe) that has come to embody the closing sets of Newport. Of course, the big guest of the night was Jack White, and O’Brien and White performed a duet on a few of The White Stripes’ songs.
However, this closing set seemed to miss the mark on the political and collective element that Newport’s Sunday closing sets have embodied in recent years. With the political climate such as it is, it felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to make more of a statement rather than rely on Conan O’Brien’s celebrity status, and as such, lacked some of its usual cohesion.
