2023 NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL

It is hard to believe, but The 2023 Newport Folk Festival was my 10th year photoing the iconic & historic festival in Newport, RI.

My first year ever was 2013, when I was hired by NPR Music to cover the festival for them. I was one year into my relationship with the organization that would run until basically 2018, when they stopped covering festivals to focus more on, well, Tinier things. :) Once they dropped Newport from their coverage, Newport Folk reached out to me to photo directly with them on their team and I have been shooting for them ever since! The same thing happened with SXSW, but we’ll get to that in another post…

Newport 2023 was the first full year that things felt back to normal after a no-go in 2020 due to the pandemic, a 50-50 hybrid event in 2021 and alllllmost back to basics in 2022 (we still had to wear masks in the photo pit). 2023 was all in on the return, firing on all cylinders. At the helm was Jon Batiste headlining both Saturdays of Folk and Jazz, something he hadn’t done since his iconic performances in 2015.

Jon Batiste headlining Day 2 of the 2023 Newport Folk Festival.

The other standout vibe of the festival was the return to a more, a non-surprise driven, music centric message. After last years earth shattering return of Joni Mitchell to the live stage, the organizers realized that any attempt to top that moment would be futile, so why not make the year about resetting and focusing on the music, instead of chasing that next big mystery or surprise around the corner. It was a welcome breath of fresh air and it certainly allowed the smaller moments to obtain diamond status. My favorite being Dan Blakeslee taking main stage on Sunday after over a decade of busking in the parking lot for festival attendees. IYKYK and if you did, you were certainly crying your eyes out.

So now onto more photos! Some highlights include Abraham Alexander, Aimee Mann, Bartees Strange, Billy Strings, Black Opry Revue, Danielle Ponder, Del Water Gap, Eastern Medicine Singers, Goose, Animal (of The Muppets!!! - we’ll talk about that later in a separate post ;)), Edie Brickell, Indigo De Souza, James Taylor, Jason Isabel, John Oates, Jon Batiste, Jupiter & Okwess, Lana Del Rey, Maggie Rogers, Mdou Moctar, My Morning Jacket, Nanna, Remi Wolf and more!

Thanks for stopping by and if you are interested in any prints from this year’s festival (or years past) be sure to head on over to the print shop! And feel free to send me a message directly if there’s something you don’t see on there. In the meantime, is it July ‘24 yet? ;)