NEWPORT, Rhode Island, 22-25 July 1965
Festival Field, Newport Folk Festival

            

     The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in July 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival.
    The festival was held annually from 1959 to 1969 on Rhode Island, barring two years of inactivity in 1961 and 1962. In 1965 it moved outside of the downtown area, from Freebody Park to a simple but ample field, which would become known as Festival Field, where it remained till 1971.
    Following a 16-year hiatus, the festival returned to Newport in 1985, and it has been held at Fort Adams State Park annually since then. 

    1965 is a very important year in the history of the Festival. After 1963 and 1964, for his third and last visit in the 60s, on Sunday 25 July 1965, Bob Dylan broke the rules and came on stage with an electic band: this was a giant step in his career.

Poster of the Festival (image Heritage Auctions)

Festival programme: front cover and Dylan  pages. Many thanks to Robert Schlockoff for these scans.

You can see a .pdf of the whole programme here.

 

           

           

           

 

Below: Ticket order leaflet (unfolded, front and back):

      

Press Pass

Postcard sent by Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan in the 1990s
explaining why he was upset at 1965 Newport Festival.
(Document Bob Dylan Center, Tulsa)

Bob Dylan performed twice during the 1965 Newport Folk Festival:

Saturday 24 July 1965
"Contemporary Songs" Afternoon Workshop

All I Really Want To Do

Tombstone Blues

Mr. Tambourine Man

If You Gotta Go, Go Now

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

 

Sunday 25 July 1965

Maggie's Farm*

Like A Rolling Stone*

Phantom Engineer (It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry)*

It's all Over Now, Baby Blue

Mr. Tambourine Man

 

*Bob Dylan (vocal & electric guitar), Michael Bloomfield (electric guitar),
Barry Goldberg (organ), Al Kooper (organ),

Jerome Arnold (bass), Sam Lay (drums).