Newport, RI – July 22, 2013 – Audio specialist Sennheiser will be a major supporter of The Newport Folk Festival® for the second year in a row, partnering with Paste Magazine to host live recording sessions with today’s most authentic and trailblazing music artists. Between Friday, July 26th and Sunday, July 28th, the Sennheiser Sound Lounge at the Paste Ruins will be in full swing, capturing live recordings sessions by dozens of creative and prolific musicians.
Last year, the ruins proved to be an enormous draw at the festival, as fans listened to intimate recording sets by artists such as Of Monsters and Men, Blitzen Trapper, Deer Tick, Rodriguez and many others, using Sennheiser’s premium wireless headphone technology. The performances, which occured inside a centuries-old grotto within the fortress that graces the Fort Adams State Park, were captured using Sennheiser and Neumann microphones and broadcast to each fan using Sennheiser’s industry renowned RF technology.
This year, in addition to the Sennheiser Sound Lounge at the Paste Ruins, Sennheiser will also provide its wireless headphone technology at the Museum Stage, one of Newport’s more intimate venues. Those waiting outside the small-capacity venue will still be able to listen to intimate artist performances by wearing Sennheiser wireless headphones.
Newport and Sennheiser: Carrying on a Spirit of Heritage and Innovation
The Newport Folk Festival® is utterly unique in its legacy among American music festivals. It is where Bob Dylan changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll when he plugged in and ‘went electric’ on July 25, 1965, and is where Johnny Cash introduced Kris Kristofferson to the world stage. It is also where The Pixies — creators of the blueprint for alternative rock — went acoustic in 2005. Today’s Newport Folk Festival® is more relevant to music fans than ever. In the last four years alone, the average age of attending fans has dropped by 8.5 years among its nearly 30,000 annual attendees, and this year’s festival sold out in just five days.
“It is not difficult to draw parallels between Sennheiser and The Newport Folk Festival®,” commented Stefanie Reichert strategic marketing communication, Sennheiser. “These are two brands that have been around for decades, yet both remain at the top of their games and find themselves at the pinnacle of reinvention. Sennheiser has stayed true to its rich heritage in audio technology without becoming distracted by short-term fashion trends, while Newport continues to reinvent itself for legions of incoming generations of music fans.”
With musical content and back to back recording sessions curated by Paste Magazine, Sennheiser will once again post entire artist performances on the Sennheiser website for fans to watch in the days and weeks following the festival.
“Newport has always followed its own path and carved its own identity,” commented Jay Sweet, producer of The Newport Folk Festival®. “We have an extremely loyal fanbase of tastemakers who crave both authenticity and ‘off-the-beaten-path’ cultural experiences. At today’s festival, it would not be unusual to see My Morning Jacket’s Jim James woodshedding with John Prine, Andrew Bird sitting in for an impromptu set with Emmylou Harris, or even Beck rubbing shoulders with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. It is a place where the new and old become reacquainted and reinvented for the incoming generations.”
Both Newport and Sennheiser cater to a growing audience of consumers who seek substance and authenticity. Indeed, Sennheiser has chosen The Newport Folk Festival® as the location to launch one of its highly anticipated new consumer products, introducing premium sound quality to many thousands of music fans.
About Sennheiser
Sennheiser is a world-leading manufacturer of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems. Established in 1945 in Wedemark, Germany, Sennheiser is now a global brand represented in 60 countries around the world with U.S. headquarters in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Sennheiser’s pioneering excellence in technology has rewarded the company with numerous awards and accolades including an Emmy, a Grammy, and the Scientific and Engineering Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
You can find all the latest information on Sennheiser by visiting our website at www.sennheiserusa.com.
