Newport Folk Festival has announced that Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will close the main stage on the second day of the 2024 festival. This is the first release regarding the artist lineup for the festival’s 2024 presentation, set to stage at its customary Fort Adams State Park venue on July 26-28. Welch and Rawling’s 30 years of experience performing together and eight collaborative albums have inspired adoration among fans and critics alike, making them a perfect fit to lead the prestigious festival.

Welch and Rawlings began their recorded collaboration in 1996 with Welch’s debut Revival, which featured guitar, bass and vocals from Rawlings and earned a nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 1997 Grammy Awards. The duo have remained figureheads of the folk revival movement since that triumphant outset, continuously challenging the genre’s norms with a style that balances historical reverence and distinctive juxtapositions. The duo were recently honored with an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for their contribution of “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” to the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in 2018, followed by a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for their 2020 covers project All the Good Times (are Past & Gone).

Last year, Billy Strings, My Morning Jacket and Jon Batiste & Friends led a weekend of 54 exciting sets, such as an impromptu performance by James Taylor. Other major acts from recent years include The National, The Roots, Alison Russell, Randy Newman, Dinosaur Jr. and Brandi Williams & Friends, which featured Joni Mitchell’s surprise return to the stage after nearly two decades away.

Tickets for this year’s Newport Folk Festival are sold out, but interested fans can join the festival waitlist here. Further acts will be posted to newportfolk.org/lineup as they are released.