Brandi Carlile Joins Newport Folk Festival 2026 Lineup
Brandi Carlile, photo by Bill Kelly
Brandi Carlile has signed on for this year’s Newport Folk Festival. After a packed year that brought her full-length Elton John collaboration, Who Believes In Angels?, and her eighth solo studio album, Returning to Myself, the genre-defining Americana singer-songwriter will return to Newport, R.I.’s Fort Adams State Park to lead the festivities on Sunday, July 26.
Carlile has been a fixture at Newport Folk since her 2008 debut at the iconic musical gathering, returning five times since as a performer and curator. In 2022, her “Brandi Carlile and Friends” headline set brought Joni Mitchell to the stage for her first full public performance in nearly two decades and her first Newport Folk appearance since 1969, captured on the Carlile-produced Grammy-winning live album Joni Mitchell at Newport. Carlile’s 2026 set will be her first since that transcendent surprise collaboration and is billed as an exhibition of Returning to Myself.
Today’s announcement of Carlile’s return is the latest dispatch from a rolling lineup that has introduced the 67th annual Newport Folk Festival with roughly three artists per week. Last week, the festival announced sets from This Is Lorelei – the solo project of Water From Your Eyes’ Nate Amos – on Saturday, Irish indie-pop star CMAT on Sunday and legendary hip-hop and neo-soul innovator Lauryn Hill on Sunday. The other acts that have joined the bill since early February are Hayley Williams & Friends. Lizzy McAlpine, Hudson Freeman, Brittany Davis & Black Thunder and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings’ Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning.
Learn more about Newport Folk Festival and stay tuned for further artist announcements at newportfolk.org. Relive Newport Folk Festival 2025 in the full recaps here and here.
