Newport and the Great Folk Dream

Powerful music rises from the air and can reshape the world. At the Newport Folk Festivals in the early 1960s, the atmosphere crackled with rebellion and democracy, braided with anger and hope. The change was driven by the musicians—Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger—yet it also included banjo players from coal country, remote Georgia gospel artists, and rural Canadian fishermen, creating opportunities for urban kids to mingle with those they would not ordinarily encounter.