Overview Newport Jazz began in 1954 as the First Annual American Jazz Festival, and it runs three stages at once in and around the stone walls of Fort Adams, a 19th-century military fort on a cape across the harbor from downtown Newport, Rhode Island. It runs three days in late July or early August. The nonprofit Newport Festivals Foundation, which also produces Newport Folk on the same ground, runs it. The festival played the Newport Casino, Freebody Park and Festival Field, spent 1972 to 1980 in New York City, and returned to Fort Adams in 1981. On site The Quad Stage sits inside the fort, the Fort Stage outside its walls, and the Harbor Stage on the midway at the end of a promenade of food vendors and crafters. The stone walls keep sound from bleeding between stages, so one set barely carries to the next. Gates open at 10 a.m., music starts at 11 and the beer and wine gardens open at noon. People spread blankets and set low chairs on the grass, with taller chairs held to the back, and there is no re-entry. Water taxis and ferries cross the harbor to the fort. Around the stages sit food trucks, beer gardens, hospitality tents and pop-up performance spots. Audience The crowd moves between stages all day through the fort's central gate, so people pass several sets on the way to the beer garden. Alongside ticket holders the foundation counts about 1,000 artist and industry guests on the grounds each year. Talent and Influencers Miles Davis played 'Round Midnight here in 1955, and in 1956 Duke Ellington's band played Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue with Paul Gonsalves' 27-chorus saxophone solo. Christian McBride's first year as artistic director was 2017. The 2025 bill ran from Ron Carter, Terence Blanchard, Kenny Garrett and Dianne Reeves to The Roots, De La Soul, Janelle Monáe, Jacob Collier, Flying Lotus, Raye and Jorja Smith, and McBride reunited The Philadelphia Experiment with Questlove and Uri Caine. The 2026 bill carried Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd, Kamasi Washington, Jon Batiste, Gary Clark Jr., Little Simz, Thundercat and Robert Glasper. Track record The 1958 festival was filmed as Jazz on a Summer's Day. The 2025 edition was the second sold-out year in a row. The foundation funds music education and artist relief; by 2025 it counted 602 artist grants, 197 program grants, 2,367 instruments and resources donated and 103,578 students served since the start of the pandemic. Brand presence Partnership runs across the festival weekend, the post-festival aftershows and year-round benefit concerts that raise money for the foundation's programs. On the grounds, partners build pop-up shops and custom experiences, gift artists, capture content, back green initiatives or underwrite programming; at the benefit concerts the options are brand visibility, artist gifting, sampling or sales, and content.