Newport Folk Festival Adds Dawes Duo, Punch Brothers, Courtney Barnett, Cat Power, Peter Rowan & Sam Grisman Project and More
Dawes, photo by Bahram Foroughi
Newport Folk Festival has continued to build out the lineup for its 67th annual presentation over the past week, expanding the stacked roster with some more massively acclaimed acts across a wide variety of genres. Since it unveiled sets from Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy’s R.E.M. tribute and Tom Morello last week, the esteemed Americana summit has added appearances from Dawes, Punch Brothers, Courtney Barnett, Cat Power and an all-star collaborative performance from jam-inclined bluegrass innovators.
16 years after they first took the stage at Newport, R.I.’s Fort Adams State Park, Dawes are no strangers to Newport Folk, but their sixth performance at the festival will be their first as an intimate duo of brothers Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith – the band’s only current full-time members. Courtney Barnett will deliver her fourth performance at the festival, celebrating the recent release of her fourth studio album, Creature of Habit. Among the new arrivals, Cat Power will end the longest absence from the grounds, returning to follow-up her 2008 Newport Folk debut amid her expansive tour marking 20 years of The Greatest.
Given their tremendous acclaim as soloists, the members of The Punch Brothers can be hard to collect for full-band shows, and their 2026 Newport Folk set will be their first at the festival since back in 2012. But they’re not the only bluegrass supergroup on the bill: on Saturday, July 26, Peter Rowan & Sam Grisman Project, Sierra Hull and Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams will unite for “something special.”
The newest additions to this year’s Newport Folk Festival continue the rolling lineup that’s expanded with roughly three artists per week since early February. The other acts confirmed for the 2026 festival include Brandi Carlile, This Is Lorelei, CMAT, Lauryn Hill, Hayley Williams & Friends, Wednesday, Lizzy McAlpine, Yasmin Williams & William Tyler, Searows, Dove Ellis, Fruit Bats, Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Hudson Freeman, Tim Bernardes, Brittany Davis & Black Thunder, Infinity Song, The Barr Brothers, Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover, Medium Build and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings’ Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning.
Find more information on Newport Folk Festival at newportfolk.org.
