July 26, 1964 - The Newport Folk Festival of 1964 ended tonight. It ended with the highest attendance figures the Rhode Island festival city has ever had. The total admissions at four nights and three days of concerts and workshops were about 70,000 persons. This figure far surpassed the 57,750 in 1958, the largest attendance for the 11 years at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Tonight’s concert was alive with the variety and contrast of traditional and contemporary folk song. There was the outstanding professionalism of Theodore Bikel, Judy Collins, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
But equally exciting were the rural ragtime of Jesse Fuller; the Afro-Cuban rhythms of the Rodriguez Brothers; the animated bluegrass of the Osborne Brothers; the intense blues of Robert Pete Williams, and the gentle introspection of Frank Proffitt.
Two outstanding performances tonight stirred the audience, predominantly comprising teenagers and collegians. Johnny Cash, the Nashville star, closed the gap between commercial country and folk music with a masterly set of storytelling songs. And the Swan Silvertones, a septet of virtuoso gospel singers from Memphis, enraptured the crowd.
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