Newport Folk Festival 2012 at Fort Adams State Park: Live photos (slide show)

The Newport Folk Festival has had quite a few ups and downs since its humble beginnings in 1959, from the popular-culture–shifting 1963 fest with Bob Dylan to its semiretirement in the ’70s. So the string of rainy evenings at this year's festival could not dampen the spirits of the grandpa hippies and disheveled young hipsters, who both came equally hungry to hear the eclectic lineup. Sold-out in record time, the 2012 festival featured bona fide folk heroes like Jackson Browne and Arlo Guthrie, up-and-comers such as Alabama Shakes, Robert Ellis and Gary Clark Jr, and indie heroes like My Morning Jacket's Jim James, and Tune-Yards. But whether a Newport Folk Festival virgin or veteran, performers paid tribute to the legends with covers of Bob Dylan, Levon Helm and the Band. The festival also unofficially honored the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's birth, which made way for a batch of Woody salutes, most notably from Wilco, which opened its set with Guthrie's "Christ for President." Weather be damned, Virginia Rollison captured the lively weekend.