What does the Newport Folk Festival mean in 2025? For some, it means speaking truth to power. At this year’s festival, there was certainly a dose of that (though perhaps less than one might think).

“Newport & the Great Folk Dream” is a rapturous documentary — elegant and transporting, full of scratchy lyrical black-and-white images and performances that have a timeless power. The movie tells the ...

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A sign near the entrance of the Newport Folk Festival, reminding festival goers to "Be present. Be kind. Be open. Be together." July 25, 2025, Rhode Island.(Courtesy Sara Shukla) When I describe the ...

The considerable longevity of the Newport Folk Festival (founded in 1959), and its singular place in American musical and political culture, makes it a natural case study. As we all know, two ...

From 1963 to 1966, a team of filmmakers shot nearly 80 hours of footage of the Newport Folk Festival, documenting performances, interviewing attendees, and capturing the festival’s changes as rock ...

Robert Gordon's transporting film draws on 100 hours of footage that has never been seen before, presenting performances of timeless power. The movie presents a far richer, more wide-ranging and ...