Remarkable ephemera archive from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, made famous for Bob Dylan's iconic and controversial 'plugged in' set on July 25th, which included 'Maggie's Farm' and 'Like a Rolling Stone.' Received by the folk-loving audience with a mix of boos and cheers, Dylan was said to have 'electrified one half of his audience, and electrocuted the other.' This was a seminal moment in the history of modern music. Among the other performers at the festival were Joan Baez, Son House, Pete Seeger, Donovan, Lightnin' Hopkins, and the Paul Butterfield Band. The archive includes:
- an original orange ticket stub (Orchestra, Section 9, Row W, Seat 15) for admission to the Newport Folk Festival on July 24, 1965, the day of Dylan's three-song acoustic workshop set: 'All I Really Want to Do,' 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now,' and 'Love Minus Zero/No Limit.'
- an original light orange ticket stub (Orchestra, Section 8, Row U, Seat 17) for admission to the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965, the day that Dylan dramatically 'went electric.'
- an original complete unused child's ticket for 'Folk Festival' admission at 11:00am on July 25, 1965, the day of Dylan's iconoclastic set.
- an original program for the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, 8.5 x 11, 64 pages, featuring Dylan's column "Off the Top of My Head."
- a rare special issue of Agora, a Boston cross-campus magazine, covering the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, with over 100 biographies of the nation's top folk artists. Dylan is astutely observed: "The price of popularity is that the individual too often becomes a target for those who decry progress."
- an original issue of The Broadside from August 18, 1965, a bi-weekly Cambridge-based folk music periodical, containing contemporary assessments of Dylan's Newport performance.
- an original postcard featuring the Empire State Building, postmarked at New York on July 26, 1966, sent home to Denmark by the Newport attendee. In full (translated): "Dear father and mother, I am now on my way home after been 2 days at in Newport to a Folk-Festival. It's the best weekend I have had. Next weekend I will hear Joan Baez in New York. I need $100 for the Greyhound now."
In overall fine condition. A remarkable, complete collection of Newport material representing an episode that changed the course of modern music.
