The Newport Folk Festival

The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival. The festival features performances by folk, blues, country, bluegrass and folk rock musicians, and since the 1990's has featured performers from related contemporary genres, such as alternative country, indie folk and folk punk.

The Newport Folk Festival was founded in 1959 by George Wein, founder of the already-well-established Newport Jazz Festival, backed by its original board: Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger and Albert Grossman.

The Festival is renowned for introducing a number of performers who went on to become major stars, most notably Joan Baez (who appeared as an unannounced guest of Bob Gibson in 1959), and Bob Dylan, whose first Newport appearance, as a guest of Joan Baez in 1963, is generally regarded as his premiere national performance. Dylan and Baez also played together in 1964. Dylan became the artist most notably associated with the festival.

The festival draws on folk music in a wide and loosened sense. For instance, in the 1960s there were famous performances by Johnny Cash and Howlin' Wolf, artists usually described as representing country music and blues respectively. The festival was associated with the 1960s Blues Revival, where artists "lost" since the 1940s (e.g. Delta blues singers) were "rediscovered".

Concerts have been a rich source of recordings. Murray Lerner directed the 1967 film "Festival" based on the 1963-1965 festivals, now available on DVD.

We´ll present some of the Newport Folk Festival recordings in the next days.