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George Wein's Folk Festival 50

Jul 30 2010 - Aug 1 2010  •  Newport RI  •  Fort Adams State Park
Genre(s): contemporary-folk, folk-rock, progressive-folk, roots-rock, singer-songwriter

Founded: 2009
Official Website
Email
Category: Roots
Region: New England
Type: Urban Outdoor

Newport festival impressario George Wein, now 83, has stepped in to retake control of the world-famous festivals he founded half a century ago. He has rights to present folk and jazz festivals on the Newport festivals' traditional dates and location, but not to use their traditional names. Wein's Folk Festival 50 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Newport Folk Festival.




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Newport Folk reclaims old moniker
Wed, 11/04/2009 - 11:06

New Festival Productions, George Wein's new production company, has reclaimed Newport Folk Festival as the name of the folk festival it produces in Newport. The official festival website now carries that branding and a recent press release on another subject referred to the festival by that name, complete with a "registered" symbol to punctuate the point. 

Last year after regaining control of the festival and its sister jazz event, the company produced the events under the unwieldy titles of George Wein's Folk Festival 50 and George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55. So far there has not been any further rebranding of the jazz festival since the inclusion of CareFusion as a title sponsor. New Festival Productions is also seeking a title sponsor for the folk festival. 

The 51st Newport Folk Festival, running July 30-August 1, will return to its previous format with a Friday night program as well as two days at Fort Adams State Park.

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Seeger singalongs top list of artistic highlights at Wein's Folk 50
Tue, 08/04/2009 - 12:02

 

Pete Seeger and friends send them home singing on Sunday night

To recount all the highlights of George Wein's Folk Festival 50 would basically be to write about every act my Significant Other and I saw. (I’m sure we missed some highlights, too — Gillian Welch, for example — for the simple reason that we couldn’t be in two places at once.) But these were among the highest of the high for me, in more or less chronological order:

• Ramblin’ Jack Elliott: Feisty and just a wee bit cranky at 78 (his birthday was Saturday, the day he performed on the Harbor Stage), he spent as much time telling stories, including a hilarious one about Bob Dylan, as he did singing. He also kept complaining about the people taking his picture while he performed. God bless him.

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Bravo! Wein's Folk 50 is a triumph on stage and at box office
Tue, 08/04/2009 - 11:45

Wow, did that just happen?

As the audience at Fort Adams State Park was reminded more than once over the weekend, as recently as six months ago it was by no means clear that there would be a folk festival in Newport this year. (Or a jazz festival either, for that matter, but that’s another story.) That there was one is pretty miraculous in itself; that it was a resounding success in both artistic and financial terms almost defies belief.

But I know it happened, because I was there.

If I believed in this sort of thing, I would be tempted to say that God (or the gods) gave the festival a big thumbs-up on Saturday, when the weather, after a week of very iffy forecasts, turned out to be almost perfect: a trifle hot for my taste, but sunny and clear. Sunday was a different story, with clouds and fog all day, but even then the weather was a lot more cooperative than it might have been: it didn’t start to rain until the festival was almost over.

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