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No need to get in early unless you need a prime lawn spot. No set was crowded… could walk up and be < 20 feet from the rail right up to the start of their sets Feels waaaaay less crowded then 50% capacity Not fond of the stripped down fort stage. I get why they did it, but with a lot of these sets being stripped down/solo, I’ve always liked how a small act (in terms of space) competes against the large stage by just having such a large energy. Not a fan of the busking stage. Would have been way better if they put it where the harbor stage usually is but set it so it backs up against the fort and faced the walkway.
Took me a bit to adjust but it was a pretty good day overall and definitely got me back in the groove (until the damn weather!)
If Grace is available tomorrow, I hope they move the music up, and fit her in!
Absolutely ridiculous that there was like 2 hours where no music playing on the 2 stages…
How bad were the storms? I appreciate being careful, especially with stages. But they didn’t look too bad on radar.
To be fair, as Jay was making the unfortunate announcement on the fort stage you could see lightning in the storm beyond the pell bridge though I don’t think the fort got hit nearly as bad as they were anticipating.
Thoughts on the return to Newport: 1. There is one reason to get there early... to get a seat at the quad. There is really only one seated/shaded area and the quad has 1/2 the seating it would normally have (if that.) If you want one of those seats, you likely need to get there early. Today, with Grace playing the quad at 11, we will get there early. 2. I live in Massachusetts and in a lot of ways had felt like the pandemic was ending. I figured the vaccine had been out long enough that everyone 12+ could get it. These last few weeks have changed my thinking significantly on this front and you can see the continuing impact of the pandemic in dozens of little ways. The most significant was the lack of musical artists. Both Margo and Shakey Graves commented on how they were playing without their bands. I don't know if this is because their bands couldn't travel or they just haven't rehearsed with them over the past months or the bands fell apart during the pandemic. I have to assume that some of these reasons also made it hard for Jay to book acts for Newport and lead to duplicate acts for Margo & Rateliff. 3. Being a solo act on the main stage takes a lot of confidence. Jeff tweedy, Trey Anastasio both pulled it off recently but they have lots of experience and aren't intimidated by the reputation of Newport. Shakey Graves has more confidence than he needs (I envy his good looks, charimsa and talent.) He has a history as a one man band and was able to carry the main stage wonderfully. The only disappointment was him getting cut off after a rousing rendition of Late July because of the thunderstorm. Am sure he would have played Roll The Bones and it would have been great. Was odd that he didn't keep his wife out for Dearly Departed and relied on the audience instead to sing the duet... or, Margo Price is sitting backstage. Why not pull her into the show for Dearly Departed? 4. Speaking of Margo, she seemed nervous without her band. Loved that she had Andrew Bird out there on violin. If it had been billed as Margo Price with Andrew Bird I am sure it would have generated more buzz and rightly so. Looking forward to seeing a lot more Andrew Bird this weekend. The final song, which was a new unreleased song, was done with a back up of the Resistance Revival Chorus, Kam Franklin, Adia Victoria, and Allison Russell and it was great. 5. The cancellation due to weather sucked. I know how hard it is to watch storms on radar and be the one that has to make the call on weather to cancel or not. From a Risk assessment perspective the likelihood of danger may still be low, but the impact of making the wrong call could be catastrophic not just to the festival day, but to the entire weekend and potentially future years and the Jazz Fest. Love that they are bringing Grace back and Rateliff will still have his time this weekend. 6. Celisse was a surprise. I had only really listened to one or two songs in advance and she rocked. Was her, a bassist (who we think also plays with Lucius,) and a drummer. She was a great singer and guitarist. They did some great covers including Eyes on the Prize. 7. Out of a little desperation, we stopped by the Parlor to see if they would have any live music and they said not until the end of the summer. 8. There is a new booth from a new bookstore that opened in Newport. Was excited to be able to browse books between sets.
Thoughts on the return to Newport: 1. There is one reason to get there early... to get a seat at the quad. There is really only one seated/shaded area and the quad has 1/2 the seating it would normally have (if that.) If you want one of those seats, you likely need to get there early. Today, with Grace playing the quad at 11, we will get there early.
Yeah the Quad is kind of bad this year. I'd say it's about a 3rd of usual seats. I'm sunburned already and doing all six days. I know they're dealing with rules and regulations. But please please get more inside and outside seating NFF. Back in the 60s NFF had vast numbers of folding chairs. There's lots of room inside the quad stage for standing on the sides and still have safe evacuation lanes but they kick people out to where there is no room because of blankets. There is standing room at back but it's tight and I notice kids and smaller folks can't see from there. I did manage to get a seat inside for Grace Potter who was amazing but then the darn weather.
Thoughts on the return to Newport: 1. There is one reason to get there early... to get a seat at the quad. There is really only one seated/shaded area and the quad has 1/2 the seating it would normally have (if that.) If you want one of those seats, you likely need to get there early. Today, with Grace playing the quad at 11, we will get there early.
Yeah the Quad is kind of bad this year. I'd say it's about a 3rd of usual seats. I'm sunburned already and doing all six days. I know they're dealing with rules and regulations. But please please get more inside and outside seating NFF. Back in the 60s NFF had vast numbers of folding chairs. There's lots of room inside the quad stage for standing on the sides and still have safe evacuation lanes but they kick people out to where there is no room because of blankets. There is standing room at back but it's tight and I notice kids and smaller folks can't see from there. I did manage to get a seat inside for Grace Potter who was amazing but then the darn weather.
Having been the last 10 years, this report tells me we made the right call in skipping this year. No aftershows was the deal breaker for our group. Seeing a single artist up on stage at a festival just isn’t my thing. I love Phosphorescent, but by himself just isn’t the same. #8 was particularly depressing.
I love bookstores. Not depressing. That being said, if I were ranking Newport Folk days yesterday was a low point. But you can’t control the weather.[/quote]
I love bookstores too. But not at my favorite music festival
I hope today and tomorrow rock. Have fun and see you next year.
Watching from social media, yesterday did seem a tad depressing. Some of the solo acts on main stages. The storms and precautions. People not wearing masks in areas where they probably should be wearing masks.
The clips I saw of Celisse though looked phenomenal. She’s a star and I hope Newport invites her back.
The whole solo without a band thing is a bit strange. Maybe Newport just booked the wrong acts? Maybe they should have kept it to a single event? Maybe they overemphasized stripped down performances to try to channel early Newport?
Why do I say this? I saw The Lone Bellow play a free outdoor show to a field of people last weekend and they killed it while sharing just a single mic. That’s a band that Newport should have made happen. As well, a week after Newport, Lollapalooza is happening. I can’t imagine that those acts will be stripped down. Or unrehearsed. I believe Joy Oladokun is the only overlap between the two but it’s a bummer Newport couldn’t swing Brittany Howard and/or Black Pumas who will be playing Lollapalooza less than a week later. (Completely understand that Lollapalooza can probably offer 10x as much for a set. And I’m sure Newport tried; they both should have been on the invited back list.)
As well, it’s such a bummer that this delta variant came raging back this past month. I can’t even imagine Lollapalooza with this variant. I’m a bit afraid that large events like festivals might get put on hold again unless we can get more people vaccinated or revisit wearing masks in crowds. And until we can get vaccination rates up, if concerts/festivals are able to continue, I think we’re in a new norm with acts like William Tyler having to drop out when coming down with coronavirus (even with a vaccination); we’re not in those music documentaries where you’ll hear an act claim “I played through that set with food poisoning” or “I played through that set with the flu.”
Last Edit: Jul 24, 2021 8:30:22 GMT -5 by k2b - Back to Top
Watching from social media, yesterday did seem a tad depressing. Some of the solo acts on main stages. The storms and precautions. People not wearing masks in areas where they probably should be wearing masks.
The clips I saw of Celisse though looked phenomenal. She’s a star and I hope Newport invites her back.
The whole solo without a band thing is a bit strange. Maybe Newport just booked the wrong acts? Maybe they should have kept it to a single event? Maybe they overemphasized stripped down performances to try to channel early Newport?
Why do I say this? I saw The Lone Bellow play a free outdoor show to a field of people last weekend and they killed it while sharing just a single mic. That’s a band that Newport should have made happen. As well, a week after Newport, Lollapalooza is happening. I can’t imagine that those acts will be stripped down. Or unrehearsed. I believe Joy Oladokun is the only overlap between the two but it’s a bummer Newport couldn’t swing Brittany Howard and/or Black Pumas who will be playing Lollapalooza less than a week later. (Completely understand that Lollapalooza can probably offer 10x as much for a set. And I’m sure Newport tried; they both should have been on the invited back list.)
As well, it’s such a bummer that this delta variant came raging back this past month. I can’t even imagine Lollapalooza with this variant. I’m a bit afraid that large events like festivals might get put on hold again unless we can get more people vaccinated or revisit wearing masks in crowds. And until we can get vaccination rates up, if concerts/festivals are able to continue, I think we’re in a new norm with acts like William Tyler having to drop out when coming down with coronavirus (even with a vaccination); we’re not in those music documentaries where you’ll hear an act claim “I played through that set with food poisoning” or “I played through that set with the flu.”
Yesterday seemed to take a while to get back to speed. The energy before the first set (2 hours after gates opened) was absolutely nonexistent. They didn’t pipe in music on the sound system like they’ve done in the past, everything seemed a bit hushed and unenthusiastic and then the festival just kinda started. They really should have gotten a much higher energy act to start the festival this year. Resistance Revival Chorus was fantastic but they would’ve been better suited to opening the Sunday morning Quad slot.
Post by earthshoe12 on Jul 24, 2021 10:10:35 GMT -5
There’s no question that it was smaller and stranger yesterday. I agree with whoever said the energy felt low early in the day, and the loss of the harbor stage is really felt. Lots of dead space between sets and no opportunity to “browse” as I like to do if there’s no one you’re dead set on seeing playing. If not for the tunnel, id say they should’ve gone the “no overlaps” route.
What can you do about the weather? It makes it tough to swallow since it wound up missing completely, but I understand they couldn’t risk 5000 people being stuck out in hail. Extra bummer because the first timers we brought were looking forward to Rateliff the most.
Having not been since 18 I’m mostly just happy I was back. Celisse was a revelation, finally got to see Lucy Dacus, and Marcus King rips. But I was just as happy to see the signs, drink a beer in the parking lot, look out at the bridge and just be back in my favorite place.
Who were the big surprises yesterday? Any performers you didn’t expect? Or do we think they were reserved for Rateliff and didn’t get a chance to come out with the storm?
Last Edit: Jul 24, 2021 10:29:18 GMT -5 by k2b - Back to Top
Who were the big surprises yesterday? Any performers you didn’t expect? Or do we think they were reserved for Rateliff and didn’t get a chance to come out with the storm?
No surprise guests that I recall other than Andre Bird joining Margo for virtually her entire set.
Biggest ”surprises” to me were Margo not doing any Prine cover and Shakey doing Mexican Home.
Who were the big surprises yesterday? Any performers you didn’t expect? Or do we think they were reserved for Rateliff and didn’t get a chance to come out with the storm?
Lucy Dacus had Tre Burt, Aida Victoria, and Haley Heyndricx back her up for a song
Who were the big surprises yesterday? Any performers you didn’t expect? Or do we think they were reserved for Rateliff and didn’t get a chance to come out with the storm?
Lucy Dacus had Tre Burt, Aida Victoria, and Haley Heyndricx back her up for a song
That and Margo’s last song was when things felt most normal.
Adia Victoria, Amythyst Kiah, Brandi Carlile, Caroline Randall Williams, Celisse, Daisha McBride, Joy Oladokun, Kam Franklin, Kyshona, Margo Price, Sunny War, Yasmin Williams, Yola, and other special guests.
