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Founded in 1954, the Newport Jazz Festival® was the first jazz festival in America, and has been host to numerous legendary performances by iconic figures and contemporary geniuses. The festival continues to present musicians who follow the traditions and modern growth of New Orleans, swing, bebop and modal. The event is a production of Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. and currently is held over the course of three days at two of Newport's historic landmarks: the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino and Fort Adams State Park.
This is our 13th year at Newport Jazz Festival. Did everything including Tennis Hall of Fame event with Chick Corea trip & Gregory Porter. Wonderful to finally see Monty Alexander at Newport. Wonder why he's not a regular. Always amazing. Always a highlight of our year. Storyville pianists were fantastic Loved everything even the food. A little bored by Nora Jones but she's not a fave. Already booked our room for next year.
The entire show was extremely well presented this year. This was my 26th time flying up to Newport from Bermuda since 1986 for this festival. And I enjoyed it immensely. The best lineup in quite some time. Looking forward to 2017.
I was disappointed in the actual concerts themselves! Line up was just ok compared to previous ones I have been to. I felt Norah Jones song choice was. It very exciting lest for a couple of songs, and other than Chic Correa, the lineup was fair! On the other hand, this is one of the great venues there is, and if weather cooperates, it is the place to be! I hope next year's lineup won't have as much progressive, and be more focused on the Marsalis,Brubeck etc traditions!
Took an hour in traffic for the last 1.5 miles of road to the parking lot despite getting there at 11:30. Missed the first acts and really had to squeeze into the Fort grounds. Been to the festival several times before and came at the same time but never took this long in traffic. You gotta fix this. Also took a ridiculously long time to get out of Newport (1.5 hours) because of a water main break. Worse yet, I've never experienced such a territorial crowd at the Fort. It's really pigish for 4 people to take up the space 12 or 16 could fit in with their chairs and blankets. You should have ushers ask people to kindly make space for others. It's another thing for these same people who take up 3-4x the space they need to leave their gear in a spot all day while they visit the other stages and then expect it to be untouched when they return. If you are going to sell out - which is great - you have to fix the traffic and lawn space so you can provide a reasonable level of service to all those you sold tickets too.
We attended both Saturday and Sunday; crowd on Saturday was immense, not so bad on Sunday. Recommend attendees bring folding chairs. All the groups/individual entertainers were marvelous.
It is a festival for grown ups -- no drunks, no roaming hordes of teens -- just nice people, diverse but bound together with a common love for great music. The lack of household names on the lineup (there are a few) is really indicative of the quality and authenticity of the music. It is an opportunity to learn. I went for two days and next time I'll go for all three. Don't event try to drive in and park on Saturday; take the ferry instead. Otherwise all was great.
America's best and most famous jazz fest. Still great. Even non-Jazz fans would enjoy as much of the music is closer to r and b, soul, and rock than it is to traditional jazz. 3 stages, 6 hours a day, plenty of music. Great!
The music was very good but the venue and logistics in and around Newport were terrible. The drive to and from the park was not policed well. It seemed as if there was no plan and although polite, the officers and park staff did a lot of waving and not much thinking. Parking was as expected in an outdoor venue but only 3 buses cycling from the outer parking lots meant long lines and long waits. Sunday it was suggested to take the water taxi but the lines to get on at the park were incredible. (more boats and more buses people!) On Saturday (sold out for the first time in years) the paths around the main stage were filled with chairs. Not until late in the day did they announce the police would be clearing people out. Oh, and the "low chair" rules, forget about it, no one said a thing to the people with high backed chairs and mounted umbrellas and monster coolers came in the gate with just content checks. Hard to believe that a festival around since the 50s would be this clumsily run. With all the outdoor music options I really do not think we will ever be back again.
Sunday's weather seemed a bit nebulous, but it turned out being a beautiful 75 degree day. The sets I watched were fantastic and the food was A-1 as usual. I wanted to see Norah Jones the day before, but even though I heard she was great, I heard the fort was packed with wall to wall people. I enjoyed being in the cooler non-sardine can atmosphere. I am looking forward to coming to the festival for years to come and I am waiting with bated breath for next years line up!
This years Jazz event was off the chain! My favorite artist were Josh James, Kamasi Washington, Joey Alexander, Christian Scott, Robert Glasper Experiment; Norah Jones; Angelique Kidjo, just to name a few. Charles Lloyd New Quartet blew the house down. Words cannot express the joy, laughter and enjoyment all were experimenting. Looking forward to the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival and many many more. It was the best!!!!
It was sold out, so the normal 40 min drive was 3 hrs. Go at least 2 hrs earlier than you normally plan to. Once you are in, parking and shuttle buses are very well organized, but you have to be patient with the large crowd. I could only hear Chick Corea, never saw him, as a long line of rude people stood in front of hundreds of us seated in our camp and beach chairs, blocking the view. I asked both a state policeman and guys emptying trash containers if security people could ask them to sit or move, but nothing ever happened. I went looking for security myself, but never found anybody. There was only 1 big screen to the right of the stage, but it was set too low, so the tented platform for the technicians blocked that view. Hopefully, in the future, one will be on the left as well and set higher up, if possible. I am a senior on Soc Security, so this was my 1st and probably last time to see the Jazz Fest.
Great 2 days at Newport, music, the weather, the friendships renewed
Great & diverse music in wonderful location. I'll be back next year.
Not a big fan of the opening act- Chick Corea. Gregory Porter gave a great performance both Friday night and Saturday. BUT he did almost the same stuff both times - I counted only a 2 song difference. I would have not paid to see him Friday night if I knew he was going to do the same stuff Saturday. Disappointing. Friday night at the Tennis Club...parking was a rip off. Across the street we paid $50. Not worth it! If I parked for free on the street and did not see Gregory Porter on Sat. I would have given this 5 stars. Disappointed there was no encore. People left early for buses it was very impolite. That being said Gregory Porter is a great performer with a great voice. We had great seats because we bought early. The acoustics were good too. They should add a projected camera screen so people way up and on the sides can see better...disappointed.
I had the most incredible time with my family!!! The headliners where Amazing!! I can't wait to come back. The vendors that where on display showed incredible Art .
Each and every performer was superb and the only reason this review is 4 stars (instead of 5) is the incredibly poor traffic management. I live @ 150 miles from Newport and it took 2&1/2 hours to drive to the Newport bridge (excellent) but then another 2&1/2 hours more to get from the bridge to the venue. HORRENDOUS! We left 1/2 hour before the last act ended, in order to try to beat some of the traffic problems, and it took 1&1/2 hours to get back to the Newport bridge (@4 miles). For a wonderful venue with many decades of experience, I was very disappointed in the lack of traffic management.
It was a really nice festival, very clean crowd and wonderfully gorgeous surroundings. The traffic however was so bad that we only went one day. I would love to try to go back but on a boat!
Greg Porter alone was worth the price of admission, as was Joey Alexander. Nora Jones, however, was out of place in a jazz festival. Worse, the festival really oversold: there was no room to set up, way too crowded, and exiting was a nightmare... We didn't get home to CT until after midnight! This was my fifth Newport, I think I'll take a break for a yeast or two :(
The Newport Jazz Festival is a wonderful, world class event.
We set up shop at the Quad early and had a great vantage point. Every act was fantastic! We snuck down to catch Chick and Nora, along with maybe tens of thousands of other people. Also great. I loved both Alexanders, Joey and Monty. Was secretly hoping that Joey would reappear and do a duet with Monty. Couldn't believe that Monty had never appeared at Newport Jazz before. So glad we were there. Then, the next day, we saw Joey on the Cliff Walk and chatted. Great weekend.
