Photos + Article by Will Oliver
Newport Folk Festival returned following a pretty wild previous edition in 2023 raising the bar and setting expectations for this year sky high. This year’s lineup featured headline sets from some familiar festival favorites – old and new – with Gillian Welch & David Rawlings and Hozier headlining the first two days and Conan O’Brien and Real Musicians headlining Sunday. Yes, that Conan!
Killer Mike
We were only able to make Saturday and Sunday this year and on Saturday we caught some great sets from Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Killer Mike, The War On Drugs, Orville Peck, Rhiannon Giddens and many more. Year after year the festival has spread its wings wider than just the traditional folk genre, with acts like Killer Mike and Orville Peck as a perfect example of the broadening reach of the festival, which is of course most welcome.
De La Soul
This diverse expansion of sound continued on Sunday, which features a set from Thao from Thao & the Get Down Stay Down and a funky set from Vulfpeck’s Cory Wong & Friends. One of the highlights of the entire weekend was the performance from De La Soul – who of course performed as just the duo of Posdnuos and Maseo, with the passing of Trugoy the Dove.
Brittany Howard
From there we were wowed by Brittany Howard, who delivered a soulful and powerful performance that was perfect for the comedown period of the sweltering heat. Before switching gears with Dropkick Murphys, whose lively and energetic rock got the crowd out of their seats and delivering an equally passionate response.
Rounding out the festival was the performance from Conan O’Brien and his band of “Real Musicians” which featured Dawes, as well as his longtime bandleader Jimmy Vivino. O’Brien and team ran through covers of classic tracks, that saw the many expected guest appearance, including the likes of Jack White, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Mavis Staples, Mathaniel Rateliff, and Nick Lowe. It was a unique and memorable closure to the festival weekend, that only Newport could pull off.
Find a gallery of photos from throughout the weekend posted below.
Hermanos Gutiérrez:
Katie Gavin:
Bertha Grateful Drag:
Elle King:
Rhiannon Giddens:
Cory Wong & Friends:
Orville Peck:
De La Soul:
Brittany Howard:
The War On Drugs:
Dropkick Murphys:
Killer Mike:
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings:
Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians:
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