Tag: Newport Folk Festival
festival legacy: Newport Folk & Jazz
As explained on our “About” page, this blog was born out of the experience that is the Newport Folk Festival. That experience cannot be captured in words, but this outstanding long-form article from consequence.net makes an extremely impressive attempt:
Newport Folk Festival 2020
As described in our “About”page, this blog was born out of the experience that is the Newport Folk Festival. The idea was to spread the festival’s pervasive sense of joy, good will, and community as widely as possible, throughout the year. Of course, this year the “folk family” stayed home. Nevertheless, via social media, the tremendous efforts of the Festival Foundation, Jay Sweet, and numerous other organizers and musicians, we all managed to be together even while apart. Thank you Jay Sweet, Caps, and everyone else for making the weekend happen.
open letter from Jay Sweet
As stated on our about page, the idea for this blog was born out of the experience of attending the Newport Folk Festival each year. This letter from the Executive Producer captures some of the reason why.
article about The Highwomen
“When we were in the studio doing our unison thing, it sounded so good,” Shires said. “We all looked at each other thinking, ‘This is what the people can do. They can sing with us, and we’ll all be unified, together.’” —Amanda Shires, 2019
tweet from Hozier
Newport Folk turns 60
a small collection of photos and articles about The Newport Folk Festival, original inspiration for this blog, which celebrated its 60th anniversary on july 26-28.
click here to visit the Newport Folk Festival instagram page
review/article from The Arts Fuse
“This [festival community] surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” —Jay Sweet, memorializing Pete Seeger
interview with Jay Sweet
“The spirit of servitude that [Pete] Seeger brought to the world didn’t die when he passed away in 2014, and that fact is perhaps most evident at Newport Folk Festival, the now-iconic event that Seeger helped George Wein get off the ground in 1959. “The spirit of Pete, and of Pete’s egalitarian nature, is in every ounce of this festival’s DNA,” says Jay Sweet, executive producer of Newport Festivals.” —Dacey Orr Sivewright in The Bluegrass Situation, 5/22/2019
Change Is Gonna Come, newport folk festival 2018
“there is a recognition that the world is a fucked up place and it needs changing, but there is also much, much more optimism and love and beauty, a feeling like, yeah, change is necessary, but it will come, maybe partly through the power of music and community like at Newport.” —neddyo, 12/22/2018
quote from Jeff Tweedy
“Every time I think everything in the world completely sucks, we get to go out and play in front of audiences and share something with people that I know is real, and it still exists, and it will always exist, and there will always be more of this [gestures to crowd] than whatever the fuck that is [gestures to the outside world]. Keep inspiring each other, ok? I know you’re already doing that, but just keep doing it. It’ll be ok. Show up for everybody. Show up for your neighbors. Show up. Just show up. Always show up. If you do that, everything’s gonna be fine.”—Jeff Tweedy, Newport Folk Festival 2017