Photo Credit: Dean Budnick

On Friday, July 26, fans flocked to Newport, R.I.’s Fort Adams State Park for the highly-anticipated return of Newport Folk Festival. 65 years after its earth-shaking debut, the musical institution proved its enduring commitment to elevating exceptional artists and enshrining American traditions with a roster of top-tier acts from the worlds of folk, roots, alternative and more. Hozier, Adrianne Lenker, Black Pumas and Shovels & Rope led the charge this year, kicking the weekend’s festivities off with a bang and a healthy serving of surprises.

Newport Folk’s prestige might be best demonstrated by its first acts, which contrast typical festival bills in their experience and renown. Early sets from Friday’s program included appearances from vaunted indie favorites like Sir Woman, Medicine Singers, Billie Marten, Big Thief’s Buck Meek—who returns to the festival for the third consecutive year—and Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, who recently recieved another slew of nominations for the 2024 International Bluegrass Music Awards. At mid-afternoon,  Allison Russell took the stage for an intimate and soul-stirring set, which featured accompaniment from the Newport Couty Choral Group on “Demons.” In a break in her performance, the 2024 Grammy winner recalled how she first connected with Mavis Staples through Hozier at the 2019 Newport Folk Festival and shared that she always kept the legendary soul queen’s image on stage, which she proudly shared with the audience. Just after, Russell welcomed Hozier to the stage to collaborate on the set-closing “Requiem.”

Following Russell’s set on the Quad Stage was the mystery artist, who was suddenly revealed as he walked onstage to be the titanic alternative forerunner Beck. In his contribution to this year’s program, Beck honored the festival’s towering legacy by steering into his folksier side and offering primarily covers of iconic predecessors associated with the festival. The artist opened with a debut treatment of Bob Dylan’s classic “Maggie’s Farm,” then moved through an array of first-time blues and folk standards like “The Other Side of This Life,” “John Hardy,” “Stag’ Lee” and Blind Willie Johnson’s “God Moves of the Water.” At the end of his staging, Beck returned to his own catalog, closing with a key-shifted “The Golden Age,” “Lost Cause,” “One Foot in the Grave,” and finally “Loser.”

More thrills came from Guster, whose Main Stage performance showcased some gems and rarities from its catalog and featured members of the UMass Marching Band, and MUNA, whose own Katie Gavin recently unveiled her debut solo project and will tease its contents in another performance on the bike stage today. At dusk, Black Pumas took the Main Stage for a high-energy set of its signature psychedelic soul. Cheers ensued through setlist staples like “You Know Better” and “Ice Cream (Pay Phone)” and came to a head when frontman Eric Burton stepped from the stage out into the audience. In its final frame, the band welcomed Staples to the stage for her first appearance of the evening, collectively running through an unforgettably anthemic rendition of the classic “Colors.”

Hozier assumed the spotlight at 8:30 p.m. as Friday’s headliner, and the celebrated Irish singer-songwriter’s set lived up to massive expectations. After deeply affecting originals like “Jackie and Wilson,” “Francesca” and “Cherry Wine,” the artist invited his longtime collaborator Russell to the stage for “Work Song.” Later, beyond this year’s sublime timing of a mass migration of dragonflies over Fort Adams, the surreally special experience of Newport Folk was manifested in Hozier’s closing entries, when the artist called on an all-star team of collaborators for two final tracks. First, Hozier issued his second-ever cover of The Band’s “The Weight” with Mavis Staples, plus Russell, Joan Baez, The Lumineers’ Wesley Schultz, Madison Cunningham, Nathaniel Rateliff, William Price and more still. Then, to conclude the day’s festivities, Mavis Staples departed from the stage as Joan Baez joined for a treatment of her classic “We Shall Overcome.”

Newport Folk Festival continues today with performances from Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Killer Mike, Craigie & Slim and more, then concludes tomorrow, July 28, with headline sets from Mighty Poplar, Dropkick Murphys and Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians. For tickets and more information, visit newportfolk.org.