With every major summer festival getting canceled due to the pandemic, festival organizers are brainstorming clever ways to keep fans engaged. Some events, like Primavera Sound, have gone digital and opted to air past sets in place of their events. Newport Folk Festival, one of the longest-running music festivals in the world, is following suit. Newport announced their Folk On Revival weekend, a three-day virtual event that will broadcast never-before-seen performances by major artists.
Newport’s Folk On Revival weekend will pull rare sets from their 60-year archive to share an eclectic range of performances. Fans will be able to watch artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Sharon Van Etten, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Mavis Staples, and more perform their songs at a variety of venues. Along with having the opportunity to watch the sets, Folk On Revival will broadcast audio of the performances on a handful of radio stations across the country.
Newport’s executive producer Jay Sweet said the decision to cancel this year’s event was tough but he hopes the Revival weekend will bring music lovers together:
“In the history of this festival, there has never been a time like we’re in now. A global pandemic shuttering our plans to congregate before quickly shifting into the biggest civil rights movement in over 50 years. Many of our lives have drastically changed, financially, emotionally, and/or irrevocably. It has been painful for many of us, on the front lines fighting the pandemic, on the front lines fighting social injustice and especially for those losing loved ones along the way. While it was an emotional gut punch to cancel the festival in a year where it is so clearly needed, we felt it was imperative to our community to do something. Music has always brought our family together, even when we’re divided. The Newport stage has always been a sanctuary for artists to speak their minds on the times in front of us, not with merely one voice alone, but many in unison. This year’s Newport is no exception, collectively representing what it feels like to be human in today’s world by amplifying our convictions. For 2020 these voices will be our megaphone, these events our stage.”
Get tickets Newport Festival’s Folk On Revival weekend here.
