Newport Folk Festival: August 1st & 2nd

This might be a little early to write about, but I don't want to forget that it's happening.

First, the meat and taters:

General Admission: General Admission seating is first-come first-served on the lawn. Patrons may bring blankets and low-backed beach chairs. Adult: $ 69.00 in advance, $ 75.00 on festival weekend, if available.

Venue: Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI

What a dump, right?

Apparently, most people only buy tickets to one day of this 2 day festival. I will be one of those people. I plan to go August 1st, to see the following:

Pete Seeger, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, Gillian Welch, The Avett Brothers, Billy Bragg, Iron & Wine, Mavis Staples, Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Ben Kweller, The Low Anthem, Brett Dennen, Tift Merritt, Tao Rodriguez Seeger, Langhorne Slim.

The fucking Fleet Foxes. My beloved bearded baroque band of Washington state. They're the reason I'm really going, because it's the only scheduled show they're playing in the area.

Also, the venerable Iron & Wine. The closest I've come to seeing him live is watching an episode of Austin City Limits at 3am one morning. My fuzzy, crackly, horrible TV hardly distracted from the fact that it was an absolutely beautiful concert. His songs are mesmerizing.

My former/future roommate and I stayed up until 7am one night drinking wine and watching music videos. I kept playing this video over and over and over and over and over. We both swore to become flamenco dancers that night. These women are so sexy and graceful. They were the most strong, beautiful, confident, and amazingly sensual women I'd ever seen. And I said as much, over and over and over and over and over again that night.

Also, Tom Morello, of Rise Against the Machine, will be performing. At a folk festival. Who knew?

The legendary Pete Seeger is performing both days of the festival to continue celebrating his 90th birthday, which was May 3rd. HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY.

To help Pete celebrate, watch this video and buy a ticket to the festival here, because this land was made for you and me.

And not to be outdone by Pete Seeger, I am also going to celebrate my birthday. That's right, on August 2nd, I will become 23 years old. 90? Pfft. Whatever.