Newport Folk Festival 2026 kicked off its weekend-long run of folk musicians and figures across rock, hip-hop, and beyond doing stripped-down sets. Friday night’s headliner was billed as Hayley Williams & Friends; sure enough, the Paramore singer-songwriter bring out a star-studded list of pals to warrant that name, including Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman, Jenny Lewis, Jack Antonoff, Lucy Dacus, and many more. Watch videos from Williams’ set below.
After opening with the title track from her new solo album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, Williams played a number of other tracks from the album with various guest: Hartzman came out for “Mirtazapine,” Antonoff played guitar and sang to “Good Ol’ Days,” Annie DiRusso joined her for “Disappearing Man,” and Phoenix Rousiamanis hopped on “True Believer.”
Williams also gave a number of songs from 2020’s Petals for Armor and 2021’s Flowers for Vases / Descansos their live debut, as her original tour plans to support those solo albums were scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Kelsey Lu sang on “Leave It Alone” before Dacus came out to join them for “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris,” the studio version of which she sings backup vocals on. Later, Lu and Madi Diaz sang “Find Me Here” alongside Williams, too.
A chunk of Williams’ headlining set was used to cover songs by her friends as well. Lewis came out to sing Rilo Kiley’s “Silver Lining” with Williams and her band, This Is Lorelei joined for “I’m All Fucked Up,” Joy Oladokun sang her song “I’d Miss the Birds,” and Antonoff broke out “I Wanna Get Better” to big cheers. Plus, Remi Wolf debuted her new song “Twiggy Little Butt” with Williams, as did Liam Benzvi with his track “Thin Air.” The set concluded with a huge group sing-along to Bill Withers’ classic “Lean on Me.”
Revisit Quinn Moreland’s essay Paramore’s Influence Is All Around Us.
