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7 must-see acts at Newport Folk Festival this weekend
From Flavor Flav and Chuck D to Margo Price and Lukas Nelson, Newport is lit this year.
Get ready for three days of peace, love and rockin’ folk.
Newport Folk Fest, baby. The mother of all New England music fests.
From Bob Dylan going electric to Conan going electric, the storied fest by the sea is a massive annual draw; tickets go in the blink of an eye. This year’s long-sold-out fest springs to life this weekend, July 25-27 at Newport’s Fort Adams.
The way Newport works, there is no way to see all the acts. Various A-listers rock on various stages simultaneously. So if you’re one of the tens of thousands of music fans driving to Fort Adams this weekend, I’m here to help guide you through the jam-packed schedule. (I can’t help with traffic. Sorry.)
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First, disclaimer: From Joni Mitchell’s resurrection in ’22 to Kermit jamming with Jim James,, Newport is known for its surprises. Please don’t send me an angry email: “Wow. I can’t believe you missed Coldplay arriving by sailboat and catching Elmo and Miss Piggy on their kiss-cam before dueting on ‘Yellow’ with a Dunkin’-sipping Ben Affleck.”
… I mean, sure. That could happen. This is Newport Folk after all. The fest also notes on their site: “Artists & schedule subject to change.” But I’m working with the schedule I got, friends. Now let me make like I just stole Affleck’s bag of Dunkin’ munchkins and dive right in.
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Oh, and one additional note: You can follow live updates from Newport all weekend at Boston.com!
Margo Price
What do I have in common with Margo Price? We’ve both earned a Grammy nod.
…Well, she was nominated for a Grammy. I just got a nod from my grammy. (Hey, Grammy.) Really, what we share is a deep love and appreciation for John Prine. I first came across Price from her duets with the late great Prine, a Newport Folk fave.
She’s got an ethereal voice that reminds me of Iris Dement, but with a hip, badass vibe. She can cover Prine like nobody’s business (check out her rocking “Sweet Revenge”), and Willie Nelson for that matter (I’m obsessed with take on “Shotgun Willie”), but her own writing is stellar.
Billing herself as “psychedelic country,” her latest, “Hard Headed Woman” drops Aug 29. I’m betting we’ll hear a few new tracks at Newport, like “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down.”
Sunday, 1:50 p.m., Fort Stage.
Jensen McRae
I could not love McRae more.
From her writing and emotive vocals, from wearing glasses on the red carpet at the 2025 Las Culturistas Culture Awards last week, to sharing her journal entries (“I have been punishing myself for all the ways I remind myself I am mortal”) — I’m here for this rise.
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The 27-year-old suddenly landed on the world’s radar — fittingly — with her sophomore album, “I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!” It earned her praise from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and saw her hailed last month by the LA Times as the city’s “next great songwriter.”
But it was her song “Massachusetts” last year that melted me. (“When someone tells me they’re from Massachusetts/ Now I always ask, ‘What part?… When someone asks me who’s my favorite Batman/ I’ll think of you and say Christian Bale.”)
Citing James Taylor, Carole King, Stevie Wonder, and Alicia Keys among her heroes, she’s a blend of influences in the best way possible. I love that she “healed her inner child” and dueted with Sheryl Crow on “Soak up the Sun” last week. I love that a version of “Massachusetts” is in the new Meg Stalter-led Netflix hit “Too Much.”
Do not miss this. She is just getting started.
Sunday, 12:05 p.m., Harbor Stage.
Goose
Beep Beep! (Or Honk Honk.) History-in-the-making alert! For the first time ever, Goose and Geese play the same fest on the same day. I only wish a Byrd popped up to jam with them. (Roger McGuinn, you have the opportunity to go viral here.)
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Goose is the jam-band from New England; Geese is the indie rock band from New York. And Connecticut’s Goose is flying high.
In the year since I talked to the band — currently Rick Mitarotonda (vocals, guitar), Peter Anspach (vocals, keys, guitar), Trevor Weekz (bass), and drummer/Bedford, Mass. native Cotter Ellis — they’ve broken through to a new level, headlining Madison Square Garden, landing on CBS “This Morning,” and — true mark of jam-band arrival — getting an ice cream flavor named after them.
“In college I was listening to a lot of older music — old jazz, Phish, Dead— but listening to bands like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver was a big door-opening for me,” Mitarotonda, a 2016 Berklee College grad, told me last year. “I just wanted to hear a Fleet Foxes that jammed like Phish.”
Bam. That’s the vibe.
Their new album “Everything Must Go” is out now. Last time they played Newport, Animal from the Muppets popped up as a surprise guest to drum on “Animal.” Fingers crossed for another Muppet duet.
More huge Goose New England news? After four years away, Goosemas, the band’s epic holiday-extravaganza tradition that began in New England over a decade ago, returns this year, hitting Providence Dec. 12 and 13.
Friday, 4:45 p.m., Fort Stage.
Public Enemy
Total legends. If you missed Flavor Flav and Chuck D at Boston Calling, here’s your chance to catch the Lifetime Grammy Award winners back in New England.
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ICYMI: At Boston Calling, Flav rocked hard in Celtics flair, wearing jersey 0 for the injured Jayson Tatum. Knicks fan Chuck D also wore Tatum’s jersey to wish him well. (Donnie Wahlberg responded to Chuck D’s post: “Reason Number 1,263,482 that Chuck D was my biggest role model.”)
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers still bring it to every live show. Chuck D tweeted a video of Flav taking a massive flying leap into the audience, and crowd-surfing. “This is @FlavorFlav yesterday at 66.”
After 10,000 shows HipHop and Ball people talk about breaking down old 40s 50s . They clearly don’t realize PE is a anomaly. This is @FlavorFlav yesterday at 66 . Stare at your elders … yeah i can jump in the crowd too but i ain’t lolol #BlackSky pic.twitter.com/Ii953uuuji
— Chuck D (@MrChuckD) July 16, 2025
Never change, Flav. I’ll note: Flav, ever the hype-man, is one of the funnest follows on Twitter. Dude is out there hyping women’s water polo at the Olympics, helping Red Lobster, scoring Jrue Holiday’s game-worn Celtics jersey. Flav, please wear it to Newport. We will crowd surf you all day.
Saturday, 5:50 p.m., Quad Stage.
Member when we all used to wear our clothes backwards,??? Imma bring back that trend with JRUE HOLIDAYS GAME WORN JERSEY.!!! 🔥🔥🔥🍀🍀🍀@Jrue_Holiday11 @celtics pic.twitter.com/G4DCnILZ7i
— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) May 26, 2024
Lukas Nelson
An absolute must-see. Willie Nelson’s guitar-genius son was the inspiration for Bradley Cooper’s character in “A Star is Born” for good reason. The full Boston.com interview with Nelson — on getting sober, learning to fly, going solo, and life with Dad — is here.
Saturday, 3:20 p.m., Fort Stage.
Lucius
If you missed them at Boston Calling, catch ’em here. When I interviewed the legendary T Bone Burnett, he raved about this four-piece, fronted by Berklee College alumni Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig.
“They are beautiful musicians and composers and orchestrators. They orchestrate with their voices,” the Oscar-winning soundtrack-master and Grammy-winning producer told me.
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Frequent Newport stars, including backing Rogers Waters in 2015, they’ve got a new self-titled album under their belts (I’m obsessed with that album cover), and recently landed everywhere from Rolling Stone to CBS This Morning. Listen to their cover of REM’s “Everybody Hurts” for a taste. Tremendous.
Sunday, 4 p.m., Harbor Stage.
MJ Lenderman
In the last year or so, the 26-year-old singer/songwriter has blown up.
While he’s been making music since 2020, it’s the former North Carolina ice cream shop worker’s latest album, “Manning Fireworks” that caught my — and a million others’ — ears.
All dark Bob Dylan-esque messy curls and tired eyes, nasal twang, brooding pout, and flannel, he’s clearly heavily influenced by Neil Young and Dylan. But he’s also a smattering of other influences — a dash of Prine humor, Jeff Tweedy sentimentality, Nirvana-’90s angst and loneliness.
You’ve seen all the memes about Gen Z’s MJ Lenderman dudes. And sure, he’s easy to pigeon-hole, but I’m here to attest, there’s meat there. He’s got writing chops. I’m interested to see where he goes in a few years.
Two songs about loneliness in our iWorld strike me: “Joker Lips” (“Coward cutting Joker lips into a rubber mask/Please don’t ask how I’m doing” ) and “Wristwatch.”
Both could’ve been Counting Crows songs. I love that Lenderman covered Counting Crows’ “A Long December” last December. The Counting Crows returned the love this week, teasing “Wristwatch,” in Lenderman’s home state.
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Friday, 4:20 p.m., Quad Stage.
(I’ll note here, given the Venn diagram cross-over in their fan base, that Gen X’s Lenderman, Jeff Tweedy, plays Sunday at 5:50 p.m. on the Quad Stage.)
And more?
I could name a few more?
Welp, I promised you seven, and I’ll stick to my word. But if you let me name 11?
- LUKE COMBS 35, brought Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit “Fast Car” back into the limelight — which helped Chapman, 61, a former Boston busker and Tufts student, earn a Country Music Award in 2023, the first Black woman to do so. (Fingers crossed for a Chapman cameo.)
- MAREN MORRIS. A Newport Fest fave.
- THE LEMONHEADS. Boston’s own Lemonheads are touring on a first original album in 19 years.
- I’M WITH HER, with Boston’s own Aoife O’Donovan.
- BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN with New Englander Anaïs Mitchell.
Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer and regular Boston.com contributor. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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