RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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In a music industry moment of increased consolidation and homogeneity, the greatest value of Newport Folk Festival is that it’s a place where audiences can witness spontaneous, off-script collaboration. That might be Brandon Flowers and Lucy Dacus singing a Jim Croce song; it might be Newport’s spiritual dignitaries, Mavis Staples and Joan Baez, closing the festival by singing (and, per Baez, “reclaiming”) “America the Beautiful”; it might be Dave Matthews showing up unannounced for a solo, acoustic mini-set; or it might be rising roots star Evan Honer debuting a new song with Rolling Stone Future 25 alum Medium Build . (During his own set, Medium Build was one of few artists directly addressing the disintegrating state of the outside world when he bantered with the crowd about the setting of the seaside festival. “Anyone arrive by boat today?” Carpenter asked to a smattering of applause on Saturday afternoon. “Nice! Tax these people!”)
As ever, this year’s festival was full of unbroken-circle torch-passing. Baez and Mathews shared a dance during Nathaniel Rateliff’s joyful closing set; moments later, Staples sang her Grammy-nominated version of Kevin Morby’s “Beautiful Strangers”; on Friday, Brandi Carlile could be seen side-stage watching the performance of Lucy Dacus, who just hours earlier was watching Wednesday shred on the same stage.
This year’s festival was full of Newport favorites. This entire recap could’ve featured heartwarming, special-guest filled sets by regulars returning to their stomping ground: Deer Tick, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, the Lumineers (who had the biggest crowd all weekend), Brandi Carlile, Dacus, and Dawes all put on beautiful sets tailored to a setting they’ve become an integral part of in the past decade-plus. But ultimately the most thrilling moments of this year’s Newport Folk Festival came from witnessing overdue festival debuts from legends (Hot Tuna) as well as first-time performances from newcomers (Ryan Davis) who put their own stamp on the festival. (Disclosure: I also organized a celebration of the late songwriter Justin Townes Earle at this year’s festival.)
Here are but 10 of the greatest performances we saw at Newport 2026.
Given his addition as a last-minute substitution for Tedeschi Trucks Band following their health-related cancellation , it came as some surprise (and a thrilling one at that) that Father John Misty chose this relatively high-profile setting to test out a notable chunk of new, unreleased material. There were songs about doomsday-prepper dystopia, songs about fathers who may in fact be secret CIA spies (that one's called “Josh Tillman, His Father, and the Scottsdale Experience”), and politically charged songs portraying right-wing xenophobia (sample lyric: “We need walls that never end/An ocean sideways between us and them”). He was accompanied for some of the set by David Rawlings, best known as Gillian Welch's longtime sideman; mostly, though, the bearded California satirist switched between piano and guitar during his entirely acoustic, stripped-down set. It was a bold bet that paid off thanks to the new songs themselves.
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