The 65th Annual Newport Folk Festival brought clear skies, big smiles, and open hearts to Rhode Island for three days of folk festivities from Friday, July 24 to Sunday, July 26. Held at Fort Adams State Park every year, all of Newport embraces the folk mindset. Taking to bikes in the mid-morning, a large quantity of concert-goers promote the eco-friendly route of festival transportation. Others rideshare, drive, or, for a completely unique option, ride a ferry from Jamestown or Providence. It’s an experience within itself just getting to The Fort, incomparable to the standard public transportation found at major festivals like Gov Ball in NYC. The ride sets the mood for the weekend right under the Newport sun – it’s going to be a fun one.
Friday: Lucy Dacus, Wednesday, and Hayley Williams Bring the Heat
Once arriving on the grounds, the world is your oyster (literally). With plenty of stages to choose from, morning coffee slushies in hand, seafood on-site, and a schedule app to guide your decision making, there were multiple options to begin your day at Newport Folk. Hitting the stages early to claim your blanket spot was at the top of mind. An easy second was finding your new favorite up-and-coming artist during the first few performances of the day. Rhode Island-born singer Honest Charlie opened up the main stage on Friday, strumming and singing folk-country tunes to the first Fort Stage crowd of the festival.
For a smaller, more intimate (and immersive!) show, many charged through The Fort to the Bike Stage. Hosted by indie-rock duo Illiterate Light, the Bike Stage is a fully sustainable, clean energy performance setup powered fully through stationary bikes and solar panels. Belle Blue, a sixteen-year-old rocker from Brooklyn, kicked off an electric first Bike Stage set while festival attendees powered the equipment through manual pedaling.
The shaded, yet constantly crowded Quad Stage hosted the likes of Hudson Freeman, Deer Tick, and the iconic Ms. Lauryn Hill. Freeman, a Brooklyn-based lofi-folk artist, made his Newport Folk debut, while crowd favorite Deer Tick’s ‘& Friends’ set marked their fifth Newport Folk booking. Ms. Lauryn Hill arrived a half hour late to her set, but played exhilarating acoustic renditions of her iconic discography – including welcoming SNACKTIME to the Quad Stage to play “Doo Wop (That Thing)” with her.
Tiny Habits, the harmonious (and hilarious!) three-piece from Boston, kept the mood light and poppy on the Fort Stage while fans laid out and danced around in the summer heat. From the stage, a sea of colorful blankets, tents, and beach chairs covered Fort Adams by 12:30 PM. Vibes completely shifted within a half hour, when alternative rock band Wednesday took over the main stage. Folk turned to shoegaze as frontwoman Karly Hartzman sang about life in small-town North Carolina.
Irish folk trio Amble and Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy shined on the Harbor Stage. Amble, composed of Robbie Cunningham, Oisín McCaffrey and Ross McNerney, spoke of their quick rise to fame since leaving their careers as school teachers, while Quinn serenaded the guests seated in the Harbor tent as a solo artist.
The Foundation Stage at Newport Folk practices what the festival team preaches. This intimate tent is dedicated to creating platforms for emerging artists and providing mentorship to young musicians. Jackie Evans, a singer-songwriter originally from the Hudson Valley, performed a piano set on Friday that left the crowd speechless.
Friday rounded out with back-to-back sets from powerhouse performers Lucy Dacus and Hayley Williams. Newport Folk served as Dacus’ penultimate ‘Forever Is A Feeling’ set – a tour that she has been on since February 2025. Although her set wasn’t branded as an ‘& Friends’ collective, Dacus brought out plenty of familiar faces, including Williams to sing “Bullseye,” The Killer’s Brandon Flowers for a cover of Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle,” and Madi Diaz for their collaborative track “Heavy Metal.”
For the final Friday set, Hayley Williams delivered a masterful ‘& Friends’ set, filled with nearly too many surprise guests to count. The impressive bill included Dacus, as well as fellow 2026 Newport Folk artists Karly Hartzman of Wednesday, This is Lorelei, and Madi Diaz. The real surprises came from those not on the festival lineup, including Jenny Lewis, Jack Antonoff (who hosted the 2025 Ally Coalition Talent Show at Newport Folk, where he brought out Williams), Remi Wolf, Annie DiRusso, and Joy Oladokun. Concluding with a collaborative group cover of Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me,” the song perfectly encapsulated the feelings that came from the first day of Newport Folk 2026.
Saturday: Trousdale, Dawes, and The Lumineers Unify The Fort
If Friday’s bill was built with powerful soloists in mind, Saturday’s was made to highlight duos, trios, and full bands. Kicking the weekend off, Trousdale brought high energy to the first Harbor Stage set of the day. The indie-pop trio’s genre-blending sound, harmonious melodies, and color blocked visuals provided both a visual and auditory interest from attendees under the packed tent. Later in the afternoon, The Barr Brothers played a stunning acoustic set, complete with a guitar string stunt at the soundboard, and The olllam showed off their transatlantic talents. Another set of brothers, Dawes Duo, (Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith) led the Harbor Stage lineup that evening.
This is Lorelei, the project of New York-based songwriter Nate Amos, as well as Medium Build (the stage name of Nick Carpenter) strummed their guitars on the Quad Stage with backing bands. This is Lorelei’s softness and Medium Build’s poppy choruses both pave the way to heavy, emotionally vulnerable lyrics and live performances. Vulfpeck brought the fire for a funk-soul fusion on the Quad Stage, jam-packed with fun, comedic bits between members along the way. Visually interesting and nothing short of exciting, the musical collective founded by Jack Stratton left smiles on the faces of all who attended.
The Foundation Stage was ringing with the pop-punk flair of Community Chapstick, a Delaware-based trio who know how to rock. Crowd engagement was at an all-time high for the Foundation set, as band members Donavan Burt and Disko leapt into the crowd to shred, sing, rap, and make their own community at Newport Folk.
Fort Stage continued Friday’s powerful lineup, starting with music from Newport-based trio Princess June. With friends and family holding down The Fort at the main stage, Princess June was in comfortable, good company. The mystic trio, composed of Myah Strauser, Griffin Keeffe, and Telli Quinn, embody all the best traits of folk culture – especially community building, friendship, and belonging.
Arizona-based Independent artist Evan Honer jammed out with his backing band around 12:30 PM, putting on the Americana set of a lifetime as he ran around stage, bobbing his curls in the air. Folk-pop princess Lizzy McAlpine had one of the most anticipated sets at Newport Folk, even reeling in a large, young demographic for this year’s festivities. Delivering a stripped back set filled with unreleased tracks off her upcoming album, Angel, McAlpine kept festival-goers on their toes with her setlist. Ending with “Spring Into Summer” featuring backing vocals by Tiny Habits, McAlpine had one of the most simple, stripped-back sets of the weekend. This allowed her to put her effortless vocals on full display.
As the summer heat turned to a cool breeze, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, with the assistance of Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers) on bass, performed an act called “Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning.” Playing in their signature Americana style, the trio dove deep into the band’s discography, beginning with “Bertha.”
Saturday’s headliner, The Lumineers, took to the Fort Stage at 6:35 PM. Founding members Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites had attendees waving their arms from the front barricade to the last tent on-site. Even the water was full, with boats, floaties, and kayaks docked to tune in from afar at no cost for the “Float Fest.” During “Ophelia,” Schultz stepped offstage to walk through the crowd, grabbing the hands of their biggest supporters. On Friday, The Lumineers played a surprise seven song Bike Stage set, and just 24 hours later, the folk band had the entire population of Newport Folk tuned in to close out day two.
Sunday: Dave Matthews, Brandi Carlile, and CMAT Ring in Final Celebration
Bittersweet is the best way to describe a Sunday at Newport Folk. The majority of fans at the festival purchase their tickets before the rolling lineup is even announced. They come for the good memories they experience year after year, especially during the final Fort Stage set. The knowledge of the weekend ending slightly seeps in. But, what matters most is the full itinerary of music for the remaining hours ahead.
Sunday’s lineup focused heavily on solo artists, with big names like CMAT, Brand Carlile, Father John Misty, and Tom Morello leading the bill. Over on Harbor Stage, Brittany Davis & Black Thunder kept the positive energy flowing during her electric keyboard set and Clover County brought her southern charm to The Ocean State. Strongboi, the retro-pop project of Alice Phoebe Lou and Ziv Yamin, put lo-fi on full-display. Frontwoman Lou danced to the bedroom beats as Yamin and his backing band ignited the stage with playful grooviness.
Over on the Bike Stage, Oakland Rising performed a special pop-up set. A musical collective of top emerging artists, the musicians took turns playing solo and as a group. Later, Sally Rose and Illiterate Light’s very own Jake Cochran tore up under the clear summer sky in bright orange apparel. Their 25 minute set left everyone wanting more from the country rocker.
Quad Stage housed many musicians throughout the day, including indie-pop artist Searows and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello. Searows’ (Alec Duckart) soft vocals, paired with his acoustic arrangements, left beautifully melancholic feelings with listeners. Morello, on the other hand, “redefined folk music” with a high-energy, electrified set featuring his 15-year-old son, Roman, on guitar. With chairs cleared out of the tent, fans moved and banged their heads to Morello’s RATM political anthems, like “Killing in the Name,” as well as a powerful rendition of “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie.
Fort Stage had another successful schedule. Mark Cutler opened the main stage at 11:25 AM, while crowd-favorite SNACKTIME came back to The Fort at 12:25 PM. In matching Dickies coveralls, the funk and soul group from Philadelphia had everyone dancing to the electric beat. Bringing out Trousdale for assistance on backing vocals, the seven-piece band turned the Fort Stage into a dynamic party zone.
CMAT continued where SNACKTIME’s energy left off with the most interactive set of Newport Folk. Darting from stage left to stage right, the Irish singer and her “Very Sexy CMAT Band” turned what’s known to be a relatively calm festival experience into a full-fledged stage performance. CMAT’s a vivacious frontwoman – between making three slight costume changes in the span of three songs, instigating faux drama with crowd members, line dancing the entire width of the stage, and bringing out Brandi Carlile for “I’d Want You,” CMAT proved to be the highlight act of the Newport Folk Festival.
Father John Misty, who replaced Tedeschi Trucks Band only a week prior to the festival date, decided on a completely different route for his set. Telling the crowd how he has a ton of highly-rated hits to get them in their feelings, he explained that instead, he wanted to use his set time to play as many unreleased songs as he could. A masterful singer and lyricist, Father John Misty brought attendees into his creative journey through exploring the meanings behind his highly conceptual tracks. Brandi Carlile’s billed “Returning to Myself” set marked her first major appearance since 2022’s “Brandi Carlile & Friends,” where she orchestrated the surprise, historic “Joni Jam.” A beloved Newport Folk artist, Carlile played both career hits and new songs off of Returning to Myself.
The 2026 Newport Folk Festival closed out with a two hour grand finale featuring Nathaniel Rateliff & Friends. Surprise guest Dave Matthews played an extended solo set (including a “Papertown” duet with his good friend, Carlile) before handing the microphone back to Rateliff, the inaugural Newport Folk Festival Steward. With other surprise appearances from Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, Brandon Flowers, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Courtney Marie Andrews, and John C. Reilly, the Sunday finale of the festival was a unified performance of both longstanding and new Newport Folk performers. The weekend officially ended with a full ensemble cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” and “America The Beautiful” under a setting sun and rainbow over the harbor. A beautiful Rhode Island weekend at a culturally iconic venue, The Fort erupted in cheers as the Newport Folk Festival came to a close for the 2026 season.
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