Newport Folk Festival continues for 2nd day

Fifty years ago today, Bob Dylan wowed and shocked the music world when he busted out an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and shredded “Maggie’s Farm”. However, it was revealed in 2012 that the pilot of that flight had the guitar in his possession in New Jersey, and after a legal battle over the instrument, the pilot’s daughter auctioned off the Stratocaster.

At the time the plugged-in performance was more than a little controversial and considered in many folk circles an affront to the genre and festival, but it’s since been remembered as a seminal moment in music history. Today (July 25) marks the 50th anniversary of its most famous moment, when Dylan played his first-ever electric set. It hasn’t been played in public in 50 years.

Dylan’s guitar will also be in attendance during a discussion about Elijah Wald’s book Dylan Goes Electric! “The whole Dylan thing is ‘Don’t look back.'” Dylan last performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 2002. Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties.

McKinney said he plans to bring the guitar to the event on Sunday, where musicians will be invited by the festival to speak on a film about Dylan’s 1965 performance and play the guitar. It’s not clear yet who will play the guitar, although Sweet has said repeatedly that while an invitation was extended to Dylan, he would not be coming to the festival this year.

Sweet asked McKinney to make sure it was in playable condition, so he checked through the instrument and changed the strings.

“It’s actually a good playing guitar”, he said.

Appearing for his first live performance since the end of his Wall tour in 2013, Waters played an entirely acoustic set that featured material from his time with Pink Floyd as well as new and old solo material. Roger Waters was backed by My Morning Jacket, Lucius and his longtime friend G.E. Smith for the duration of his headlining set at the Newport Folk Festival.