concept by, film director, film producer, photography by Murray Lerner
featuring Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers
featuring Bob Dylan
featuring Buffy Sainte-Marie
featuring Clayton McMichen
featuring Cousin Emmy
featuring Donovan
featuring Eck Robertson
featuring Edison Fife And Drum Corps
featuring Fannie Lou Hamer
featuring Fred McDowell
featuring Freedom Singers
featuring Georgia Sea Island Singers
featuring Horton Barker
featuring Howlin' Wolf
featuring Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band
featuring Joan Baez
featuring John Koerner
featuring Johnny Cash
featuring Lilly Brothers
featuring Mike Bloomfield
featuring Mike Seeger
featuring Mississippi John Hurt
featuring Odetta
featuring Pete Seeger
featuring Peter, Paul & Mary
featuring Richard & Mimi Farina
featuring Robert Wilkins
featuring Ronnie Gilbert
featuring Sacred Harp Singers
featuring Son House
featuring Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
featuring Spokes Mashiyane
featuring Tex Logan
featuring The Moving Star Hall Singers
featuring The Osborne Brothers
featuring The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
featuring The Staple Singers
featuring The Swan Silvertones
featuring Theodore Bikel
film editor Howard Alk
interviewee Almeda Riddle
interviewee Annie Watson
interviewee Joe Patterson
interviewee Ollie Gilbert
interviewee Robert Beers
photography by George Pickow
Licensed From MLF Productions Inc.
Copyright (c) Patchke Productions
Copyright (c) The Criterion Collection
Glass Mastered At Sony DADC
Blu-ray Edition
98 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
1.33:1 Aspect Ration

Before Woodstock and Monterey Pop, there was Festival. From 1963 through 1966, Murray Lerner visited the annual Newport Folk Festival to document a thriving, idealistic musical movement as it reached its peak as a popular phenomenon. Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Cash, the Staple Singers, Pete Seeger, Son House, and Peter, Paul and Mary were just a few of the legends who shared the stage at Newport, treating audiences to a range of folk music that encompassed the genre’s roots in blues, country, and gospel as well as its newer flirtations with rock and roll. Shooting in gorgeous black and white, Lerner juxtaposes performances with snapshot interviews with artists and their fans, weaving footage from four years of the festival into an intimate record of a pivotal time in music—and in American culture at large.

Director-Approved Blu-ray Special Edition Features

New, restored 2K digital transfer, approved by director Murray Lerner
New reconstruction and remastering of the soundtrack from the original concert and field recordings, approved by Lerner
Making “Festival,” a new program featuring Lerner, associate editor Alan Heim, and assistant editor Gordon Quinn
When We Played Newport, a new program featuring archival interviews with Lerner, music festival producer George Wein, and musicians Joan Baez, John Cohen, Judy Collins, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow, and others
Selection of unreleased performances by Clarence Ashley, Johnny Cash, Elizabeth Cotten, John Lee Hooker, Odetta, and Tom Paxton
Optional captions identifying artists and song titles
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Amanda Petrusich and artist biographies by folk music expert Mary Katherine Aldin
New cover by Eric Skillman
Barcode: 715515203715
Matrix / Runout: BVDL-1343730A1V3BA01 (Outer Ring)
Matrix / Runout: BVDL-1343730B1 1 A02 (Inner Ring)
Mastering SID Code: IFPI L323 (Outer Ring)
Mastering SID Code: IFPI L322 (Inner Ring)