Newport Jazz, Folk Fests Ink 25-Year Deal

Douglas Mason/Getty Images – Newport Folk Festival 2017
A view of the crowd and bay from the top of Fort Adams during the Newport Folk Festival 2017 at Fort Adams State Park on July 30, 2017 in Newport, Rhode Island

Fear not, residents of Newport, R.I., for your iconic festivals will not be going anywhere. The state of Rhode Island and Newport Festivals Foundation chairman George Wein announced July 28 a license agreement keeping the events in their namesake city for 25 years.

The deal stipulates the Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival will be held in Newport for the next quarter-century and a museum with displays about both festivals will be opened.

This year’s Newport Jazz Festival is scheduled to place Aug. 3-5 and will feature Living Colour, BadBadNotGood, Pat Metheny, Andra Day, Charles Lloyd, Grace Kelly, Gregory Porter, George Clinton And Parliament Funkadelic and more.  

Wein recently appeared on the cover of Pollstar in a special feature celebrating his 64 years of festival production, from Newport to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

On the subject of what characterizes Newport, he said: “Money is not the driving force for what we do. It’s the music and creating a great event.”

Organizers also previously noted last year’s folk festival sold all 30,000 tickets available in eight minutes, before any artists had even been announced.