Newport’s sold-out 65th Folk Festival kicked off on Friday with a day of beautiful sunny weather and music across four stages in Fort Adams State Park.
One of the early sets of the day on the Harbor stage was British folk singer Billie Marten. Marten played an ethereal set that included music from her 2023 album ‘Drop Cherries,’ as well as a few unreleased songs. Marten’s beautiful lilting voice carrying out across the waterfront stage was a great way to start off the weekend of folk music.
Another classically folksy set was Buck Meek, who performed music from his most recent album mid-day on the Quad stage. Towards the end of his set he invited out his fellow Big Thief band member Adrianne Lenker to play their song “Certainty,” a beautiful harmony of the two singers about confidence in love. The duo was met with a standing ovation from the stage’s seated audience.
Adrianne Lenker played her own solo set on the same stage later that evening and brought out Buck Meek for a few more of their band’s songs. Lenker’s solo performance consisted of only an acoustic guitar accompanying her hauntingly emotional vocal performance. She played a variety of songs from her solo records as well as some Big Thief hits such as “UFOF”. Lenker also debuted a number of unreleased songs and she confided in the audience that many of them were new Big Thief songs she was testing out. Her performance was one of the most impressive from the day, and the crowd fell quiet during her set, held in trance and in some cases in tears by her beautiful songs.
Throughout the day the performances emphasized folk as a melting pot of other genres, and a unique example of this was the band Wednesday. The band recently came out of North Carolina with their more raucous folksy punk album “Rat Saw God”, which was met with critical acclaim from the likes of NPR. Wednesday is made up of a set of more alternative musicians, with their lead singer donning a variation of clown face paint for the stage and delivering a delightfully raw vocal performance that occasionally escalated to punk-inspired screams.
Another band that brought some nuance to the folk sphere was the psychedelic soul band Black Pumas who displayed their silky smooth vocals and rock influence with a performance on the main stage in the afternoon.
Following Wednesday’s performance there was a surprise set slotted that, in typical Newport Folk fashion, was not revealed until the time of the performance. Festival goers flooded in from all stages to see the surprise performance from the legendary artist Beck. Beck was recently featured on a song with artist Orville Peck and has been touring lately, sparking more buzz around his name than there has been in a while. His collaborated Orville Peck also played the Folk Fest on Saturday.
A surprising and highly anticipated set from Friday was the pop band MUNA. Lead singer Katie Gavin announced right before the fest that she will be releasing a solo album and playing a solo set at Newport on Saturday. She assured the crowd during MUNA’s Friday set that the band is also working on their fourth album together and are continually growing together as musicians. In an effort to adapt to the folk context in which they were playing, MUNA’s set contained some more rarely performed slower tracks that have more folk and country influence. Gavin remarked that one thing she respects about folk music is that musicians aren’t afraid to bring political statements into their music. MUNA was one of many performers on Friday to make a clear political statement in support of Palestine and queer rights in America. Before playing “Kind of Girl,” Gavin told the crowd, “this is for our trans fans out there”.
Newport often welcomes back return performers past festivals, and this year’s Friday headliner, Hozier, was a welcome return. Hozier played many songs from his newest record “Unreal Unearth”, as well as crowd favorites that no one could resist singing along to like “Cherry Wine” and “Take Me to Church”. He closed out the day by bringing out a gaggle of guests including Allison Russell, Mavis Staples, William Prince, and Joan Baez.
