Newport and the Great Folk Dream

Robert Gordon / United States / 2025 / 99 min

For anyone with an interest in folk music or the musical movements of the 1960s, this is a film that will make you wish you could step right through the screen and into its world: the Newport Folk Festival 1963–1966. Year after year, the atmosphere becomes more innovative, until Bob Dylan’s landmark electric performance (which was recently interpreted by Timothée Chalamet as a young Dylan in the feature film ‘A Complete Unknown’) radically changes the rules of the game. 

But the film is much more than that performance. It is a time capsule from an era when music was seen as a force for changing the world, and when activism and diversity were core values. Dylan, Baez, Cash, and the festival’s midwife Pete Seeger – who insisted that everyone receive the same fee of 50 dollars – appear alongside overlooked but brilliant musicians: Egyptian oud players, singing Canadian fishermen, virtuoso banjo players, and many more. The archive material, edited from over 100 hours of recordings, is nothing short of sparkling.