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.
Saturday started off with a bang with Oliver Hazard opening up at the Harbor, Newport returnee Tré Burt at the Quad Stage, and rock group Number One Babe at the Fort.
Over at the bike stage in the afternoon, Katie Gavin of MUNA played songs off her upcoming solo project, What a Relief. Remarking that she hadn’t played a set like this since high school, Gavin debuted these songs for the first time to a captivated audience of mostly MUNA fans who were lucky to witness this special set. MUNA bandmate Naomi McPherson also joined Gavin on “As Good As It Gets”, a song about the intricacies of long term relationships. Gavin’s sound seems to take a lot of inspiration from the early 2000s singer-songwriter era that had a foothold at Newport Folk Festival during that time as well.
One of the acts that drew the biggest crowd this weekend, even though they played one of the smaller stages, was Bertha: Grateful Drag – a Grateful Dead cover band where all the members perform in drag. Ending their set with signs that read “Drag is not a crime,” the band brought energy and a buzz to all of those who were lucky enough to get a good view. Through their crowd over at the Quad Stage, Elle King performed her big band rock and roll set for the first time at Newport Folk.
Joan Baez continued her weekend residency at Newport with a special reading of her poetry from her new book at the bike stage. Immediately following on the Quad Stage, the audience was treated to a powerful set by Orville Peck, who made it to the Fort this year after unfortunately canceling his tour last summer. He thanked the audience for allowing him the space to heal mentally and physically, and appeared in top form. Performing “Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other”, which he recently covered and released with Willie Nelson, Peck captivated the Quad audience with his smile and commanding voice. Peck also pulled Newport favorite Nathanial Rateliff up to perform their duet “Conquer the Heart” live for the first time.
Closing out the Quad Stage on Saturday was Killer Mike, a much-needed genre shakeup for the day. Newport’s continued inclusion of more hip hop and rap artists breathes new life into the lineup and broadens the definition of “folk” in a meaningful way. Meanwhile over at the Fort Stage, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performed songs from the culmination of their careers to end Saturday’s festivities and included many unreleased songs from their upcoming work. It was a solid closing set that didn’t need to rely on any of the flashiness that many closing sets have erred towards in recent years.
