The 12 Best Newport Folk Festival Performances of 2025 » PopMatters

The 2025 Newport Folk Festival had so many superb artists to catch, old favorites, rising musicians, and surprise collaborations. Here are a few highlights.

Ahead of the 2025 festival, Nathaniel Rateliff was announced as Newport Folk Festival Steward, a role previously held by the late, great Pete Seeger. The communiqué noted that Rateliff helped curate the three-day festival. Separately, the fest shared he would have an early slot on Friday, helping to draw in an audience for some of the morning acts, and it was clear that he would be a guest throughout the weekend.

The festival is known to host numerous cross-collaborations and guest acts, including notable acts such as Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, and Paul Simon in recent years. For 2025, headliners for two nights were listed in a way to leave open the possibilities for guests, and on the third night, headlined by country star Luke Combs, led to rumors that Tracy Chapman might appear for “Fast Car” (as they had collaborated at the Grammys). 

In the end, Chapman was not in attendance (though her song “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution” was covered by Hurray for the Riff Raff on Sunday), but there was no doubt the festival was a success even with the thunderstorm delay on Friday. The 2025 Newport Folk Festival had so many superb artists to catch, old favorites, rising musicians, and surprise collaborations. Here are a few highlights.

Newport Folk Festival Best Performances

• Public Enemy
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• S.G. Goodman
• The Swell Season
• Bonny Light Horseman
• I’m With Her
• Dan Reeder
• Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness
• Stephen Wilson Jr.
• Hannah Cohen
• James Austin Johnson
• Tyler Ballgame

Public Enemy

Chuck D and Flavor Flav hit harder than any other act over the festival weekend. Their career-spanning, outstanding set was heavy on politics. Chuck D was critical of many “governments”, the current US president, and called for an end to violence in Palestine, the Congo, and Ukraine. Talk about energy; Flavor Flav took a stage dive into the audience. Their set included hits like “State of the Union (STFU)”, “Fight the Power”, and a cover of Bob Dylan‘s “Like a Rolling Stone”. The indelible performance was one of the best in recent Folk Fest memory.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Twenty-five years in as a group, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ current ‘Hidden in Pieces’ tour expanded the band’s musical palette with the addition of string arrangements and acoustic guitars. However, the show was a demonstration of solemnity; Karen O’s energy wasn’t dampened on the intimate Quad Stage. She and the group rocked through a couple of covers, including Björk’s “Hyperballad”, and closed out a rain-delayed set with classics like “Maps”, “Turn Into”, “Y Control”, and “Zero” while fans packed up next to the stage and sang their hearts out. 

S.G. Goodman

S.G. Goodman has fast become a Newport Folk Festival favorite. Her first appearance was just a few years ago alongside Courtney Marie Andrews and Deer Tick, and she returned in 2025 with a new album, Planting by the Signs, in tow. The stories she told and the songs she sang included the nine-minute “Heaven Song”, “Snapping Turtle” (both from the new record), and a cover of Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper”. Goodman admitted (to a New York City audience a few days later) that she took her shell off for the fest, socialized, and collaborated with a few artists across the weekend, including Lucius and the “Goodnight, Irene” finale on Sunday night.

The Swell Season

The Swell Season replaced an artist who dropped off the fest just a few days before it was to begin. The “joyful reunion” of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova resulted in the release of their first new record in over 15 years, Forward. At Newport, the group performed new songs like the dusky-tinged “Great Weight” and the delicate “People We Used to Be” alongside fan faves like “Falling Slowly” and “When Your Mind’s Made Up”. They also sat to the side to allow a young artist they had met, Josh Okeefe, to have a moment to shine and perform his song “Build a Wall”. Okeefe must have been nervous as Hansard, returning to the stage, joked Okeefe could have tuned the guitar, but he made the most of the special moment on stage.

Bonny Light Horseman

Josh Kaufman must have done some musical wizardry upon Bonny Light Horseman as their rich music enveloped the Fort Stage on Saturday afternoon. Kaufman, alongside Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and their band, performed a mix of songs from the group’s three records, including “Old Dutch” (a favorite of Barack Obama’s), “The Roving”, and “When I Was Younger”. Kaufman was also in charge of curating Sunday’s headlining set, so Bonny Light Horseman made a brief reappearance to cover Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”, but it would have been great to have had a longer set from them. 

I’m With Her

Folk trio Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan played a strong bluegrass set featuring songs from Wild and Clear and Blue, released this past May (and produced by Josh Kaufman). The group were touring with Iron & Wine (Sam Beam was performing and celebrating his birthday at the fest) and joined his set for “All in Good Time” but their own set included the beautiful “Ancient Light”, the comforting “Only Daughter”, and a cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”.  

Dan Reeder

Dan Reeder signed to John Prine‘s Oh Boy Records label in 2003, and the artistic connection between the two was fully on display during a 15-song set on Saturday. Reeder, with his daughter Peggy Reeder, has a wry sense of humor and cusses casually. The two joined Jack Antonoff and Bleachers‘ set on Friday to perform “Maybe”, a song about death that quotes the dictionary. During the main set, One Kafkaesque song, “Born a Worm”, had him asking “Oh what the fuck is that about?” while “Clean Elvis” echoed Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” before Reeder turned to a story of an alien battle. A truly wild tune. 

Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness

South Africa’s Afropop six-piece group Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness were the first act to hit the Quad Stage on Sunday (the group returned to Fort Adams State Park for Newport Jazz the following weekend). Their energy built up slowly throughout a performance that began as respectful hymnals before transforming into an exhilarating exercise that had the audience jumping up and down. 

Stephen Wilson Jr.

With a dusky voice and his guitar, Indiana’s Wilson Jr. performs a mix of grungy country music, akin to Sturgill Simpson. His set had gripping rockers (“Cuckoo”), stirring numbers (“Father’s Søn”), and a cover of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way”. He returned to help close out the fest on Sunday, covering Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” with Lukas Nelson.

Hannah Cohen

Hannah Cohen is a relatively new artist to me, but she played a few shows in New York City recently in support of her well-received new record, Earthstar Mountain. However, she’s been on the scene for over a decade with three prior albums under her belt. Having collaborated with Sam Amidon, Rob Moose, and more, Cohen stopped to chat with Sam Beam of Iron & Wine for a moment. During her set, she performed a newer standout track, “Mountain”, which strongly recalled the classic sounds of Fleetwood Mac. 

James Austin Johnson

Saturday Night Live‘s current Trump impersonator, James Austin Johnson, jokingly worried that “it’s not a fun time to be a guy who does professional president voice”. He was concerned because Trump, after being shot, didn’t stage a comeback as a folk singer but swiftly returned to the same (if not worse) as before. Johnson’s short comedy routine on the bike stage also smartly poked fun at the Highwaymen, the group and the song, getting into how conflicting the crimes were to the respective singer’s persona. It was a terrific and topical act.

Tyler Ballgame

Rhode Island native Ballgame made his first appearance at the fest and will likely be back for more. Hearing him for the first time during his main set, I was struck by Ballgame’s unique soulful voice. He’s only got a few songs streaming, including “Help Me Out”, which he performed, but he also joined James Austin Johnson for a song at the bike stage.