NEWPORT — The Newport Jazz Festival is a world-renowned draw for jazz enthusiasts, with many people traveling to Newport summer after summer since the festival started in 1954 to see the best musicians the genre has to offer. Single-day tickets go for $94, although children 9 and under get in for free, and many festival-goers come from out of state and purchase three-day passes, which have sold out.

For those who can’t attend this year, here’s a glimpse of what the festival was like on opening day.

One key fact to remember about the Jazz Festival is parking costs $25, cash only. If you show up cashless, the closest ATM is at the Shell station on Thames Street. It’s a bit of a walk from the parking area to the ticket and security gate, but it’s a nice walk along the waterfront. There are some rules about the size and type of coolers allowed, but many people were carrying in snacks and lawn chairs to set up for the day. No liquids are allowed, so water and coffee have to be dumped out before entering, but there is coffee for sale and free water bottle filling stations located at each of the stages.

Fort Adams’ grounds are divided into three stages: Fort, Quad and Harbor. Fort is the largest stage, outside the northern wall on the expanse of lawn stretching towards the Newport Bridge. Quad is located inside the fort’s courtyard, and Harbor, the smallest stage, is located on the east side of the fort, closest to the festival entrance. Quad and Harbor each have one water bottle filling station, and Fort has two, along with a good mix of food and beverage tents (the falafel was particularly delicious), a shade tent, and plenty of porta-potties.

One Warwick couple who has been attending both the Newport and New Orleans jazz festivals every year for the past decade said they had experienced hotter weather in previous years and had also endured torrential rains one year in Newport, saying, “We were all soaked, umbrellas and chairs were blowing everywhere, but the crowd was still enjoying themselves and having a great time.”

Gary, Paul, and David have been coming to Newport Jazz for about nine years, always buying single day passes and driving down from Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. All three are retired school administrators, and Gary plays guitar in a classic rock band. When asked about his favorite Friday act in his memory of attending, Gary quickly said John Zorn, an avant-garde saxophonist and composer. However, he was quick to add, “It’s impossible to see a bad act at this festival, and there are always some surprises.”

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Two other couples waiting in the entrance line revealed they had come from Massachusetts and New Jersey, respectively, and were staying on Aquidneck Island and attending all three days of the festival. Some young students in matching T-shirts revealed that they were participating in Salve Regina’s jazz camp, and the campers come from all over the country, most of them from outside of Rhode Island. A festival employee working in the will call office confirmed the empirical evidence, saying, “The majority of our attendees come from New York and Massachusetts – we have all the statistics.”

While it is not uncommon to see people at Fort Adams sporting Jazz Festival T-shirts from decades ago – or wild-patterned button-downs from the New Orleans Jazz Festival, a sort of “if you know you know” fashion statement among the retired jazz fan set – there are also plenty of young people in attendance, ranging from toddlers to teenagers, and it is a great value experience for families with children under 10 who can get in for free.

The Jazz Camp at Newport, sponsored by Salve Regina, the University of Rhode Island and West Virginia University, offers an extra special festival experience for its young participants, all of whom are musicians required to audition in order to gain a place at the five-day camp. The camp’s web page reveals that in addition to receiving a ticket to the festival, the campers will have the opportunity for a meet-and-greet or master class with a Newport Jazz Festival artist.

As the Mingus Big Band performed its tribute act on the Fort Stage (for a fascinating historical tidbit about jazz in Newport, look up Charles Mingus’s Newport Rebels album and the story of the alternative jazz festival he organized in protest in1960) the Quad Stage hosted a quartet headed by Grammy-nominated Dan Wilson on guitar, including a surprise guest vocal appearance by Lettuce member Nigel Hall. It is that kind of surprise collaboration, very much in the spirit of the genre’s culture of spontaneous improvisation, festival attendees have come to expect and love.

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Wilson was followed by one of the festival’s most exciting contemporary up-and-comers, a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, performer and spoken word artist named Celisse. She got the crowd going, including a Bill Withers cover in between some original music and showcasing her vocal range throughout her energetic set before ceding the stage to Nate Smith & Kinfolk.

The festival will continue on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. – 7:30 p.m., featuring a diverse array of jazz, funk and hip-hop artists and including a tribute to George Wein, the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival and co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival, who passed away last year at the age of 95.