Newport Folk Fest had surprises from Hayley Williams, Waxahatchee, MJ

60 years removed from Newport Folk Festival‘s Dylan Goes Electric moment that Timothée Chalamet depicted so well in last year’s hit film A Complete Unknown, the Rhode Island festival is still full of surprises. The 2025 edition went down this past Friday (7/25) to Sunday (7/27), and here are a few of those show-stealing moments:

The big one is that Jack Antonoff and his band Bleachers did a Newport edition of Antonoff’s annual NYC-based Ally Coalition Talent Show, and it featured Hayley Williams making the live debut of her new ’90s alt-rock-sounding song “Mirtazapine” and covering Modern English’s “I Melt With You” with Bleachers; plus Jack also brought out Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy for Wilco’s “Kamera” and a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Margaret”; Waxahatchee and Weyes Blood for Roy Orbison’s “You Got It” and Dan Reeder‘s “Maybe” (with Reeder himself as well), which followed Weyes Blood doing “Dream A Little Dream Of Me”; Rufus Wainright for Bob Dylan’s “Not Dark Yet” and Bleachers’ “45”; and Maren Morris for Bleachers’ “Don’t Go Dark Yet.”

Waxahatchee also played her own set and brought out MJ Lenderman for four songs: “Right Back To It,” “Burns Out At Midnight,” “Tigers Blood,” and “Much Ado About Nothing.” MJ Lenderman also played his own set and brought out S.G. Goodman for the harmony vocals on “She’s Leaving You” (“if you like first initials and last names…,” Lenderman told the crowd.) S.G. Goodman’s own set included a cover of the Butthole Surfers classic “Pepper.” “Hope you like the ’90s,” she said.

S.G. Goodman and Kevin Morby also both led teams in the Newport Folk All-Star Softball Game, with proceeds going towards local music lessons for kids. As Newport’s Instagram noted, “Team Goodman held off a late inning rally from Team Morby to take home the trophy.”

The National’s Matt Berninger did a surprise set on Sunday that included solo material, a rendition of The National’s “Alcott,” and a cover of The Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ For A Superman.”

Yeah Yeah Yeahs did a set that included covers of “In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)” from David Lynch’s Eraserhead and Björk’s “Hyperballad.”

Geese and Goose both played on Friday, and Geese’s Cameron Winter also played a solo set that same day. During Geese’s set, he gave a shoutout to Ozzy Osbourne.

Fresh off releasing his new album Headlights, Alex G played a set that included a mention of A Complete Unknown, as Boston.com recapped:

“Really historic festival, it seems like,” said Giannascoli. “I saw that movie about Bob Dylan recently.”

[…] “In the Bob Dylan movie he plays electric at Newport Foll Festival and people didn’t like it … anyway, I thought you would like this,” he said before motioning to his acoustic guitar — to laughter from the audience.

Remi Wolf‘s set was billed as “Remi Wolf & Friends,” and she brought out Saya Gray, slimdan, Adam Melchor, Tiny Habits, Marren Morris, John C. Riley, and Jeff Tweedy, who joined her for a rendition of Wilco’s “Either Way.”

The fest also included Jessica Pratt, Bonny Light Horseman, Iron & Wine, Kim Deal, The Lemonheads, and more. Check out some videos of many of these highlights from the festival below…