Overview The Newport Folk Festival is the festival where Bob Dylan went electric in 1965 and where Joni Mitchell came back to the stage unannounced in 2022, held over three days each July at Fort Adams State Park on Newport harbor. The festival says it is known more for its surprises than for its posted bill: the lineup rolls out over months, and unbilled guests are part of the format. George Wein founded it in 1959 with Albert Grossman, Pete Seeger, Theodore Bikel and Oscar Brand, as a counterpart to his Newport Jazz Festival, and it has run at Fort Adams since its revival in 1985. The nonprofit Newport Festivals Foundation produces it and funds music education and artist relief from it. On site The festival uses the whole fort. Stages run inside and outside the old walls, with the Fort Stage looking out over the harbor and the Claiborne Pell Bridge, and the Harbor and Quad stages and pop-up performance spots around them. Food trucks, beer gardens and hospitality tents fill the grounds between sets. Aftershows follow the festival, and benefit concerts through the year raise money for the Foundation's programs, built like the festival around collaboration and surprise. Audience The festival describes its crowd as cultural omnivores who crave innovation, appreciate tradition and want authenticity from the bands and the brands around them. They buy early: every edition from 2014 through 2023 sold out, 2020 aside, and in 2014 all three days went months in advance. About 1,000 artist and industry guests are on site each year alongside the ticket holders. Talent and Influencers Joan Baez made her surprise debut here at 18 in 1959, and Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, Odetta, Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi John Hurt and James Taylor have all played Newport. Dolly Parton turned up unannounced in 2019. In 2022 Mitchell sat in Brandi Carlile's set and Paul Simon played a surprise set with Nathaniel Rateliff; the Mitchell set became the album Joni Mitchell at Newport. Conan O'Brien brought out Jack White and Mavis Staples in 2024. The 2026 bill carried Lauryn Hill, The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile, Father John Misty and Tom Morello, and Nathaniel Rateliff's set brought out Joan Baez, Dave Matthews, Mavis Staples and Gillian Welch. Track record Pollstar named Newport Folk its music festival of the year in 2012, 2014 and 2015. By 2025 the Foundation counted its work since the pandemic began at 602 artist grants, 197 program grants, 2,367 instruments and resources donated, 2,100 free private lessons and 103,578 students served. Brand presence Partners work through the festival's own formats: pop-up shops, custom experiences, artist gifting, content capture, in-kind donations, green initiatives and underwriting for the Foundation's programs, with sampling, sales and artist gifting at the benefit concerts. Faherty appeared on the partner rows for both 2025 and 2026, and the festival thanked 11 partners on its site after the 2026 edition.