Schedule Of Events

April 3, 2025

7:00pm : Verso Visionary: Patti Smith, Legendary Singer/Songwriter, in Conversation with Alisyn Camerota

VersoFest 2025 is kicking off with a legend of music and letters. Patti Smith, the acclaimed singer/songwriter, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and National Book Award winner, will open The Westport Library's fourth annual music and media festival on April 3. Smith is revered for her work as a performer and songwriter - her 1975 album Horses has been hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the top 100 albums of all time. Her 2010 volume, Just Kids, won the National Book Award for nonfiction. She is also the author of New York Times best-sellers M Train and Year of the Monkey and works of poetry including Auguries of Innocence.

April 4, 2025

8:30pm : Headline VersoFest 2025 Friday Night Concert: The Wallflowers

The Wallflowers, who rose to fame behind their iconic 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse and who have continued to thrive as one of rock's most dynamic and purposeful bands in the three decades since, will be the headlining act for the VersoFest 2025 concert event. For the past 30 years, the band has stood as a unit dedicated to and continually honing a sound that meshes timeless songwriting and storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern musical attack. That signature style has been present through the decades, baked into the grooves of smash hits like “One Headlight,” “Three Marlenas,” and “6th Avenue Heartache” from Bringing Down the Horse - as well as a continued outstanding body of work present on standout albums like Breach (2000), Rebel, Sweetheart (2005), and Glad All Over (2012). In recent years, Jakob Dylan - the Wallflowers' founding singer, songwriter, and guitarist - has stepped outside the band, first with a pair of acoustic, rootsy records, 2008's Seeing Things and 2010's Women + Country, and then with the 2018 film Echo in the Canyon and the accompanying soundtrack, which saw Dylan collaborate with a host of artists classic and contemporary, from Neil Young and Eric Clapton to Beck and Fiona Apple.

April 5, 2025

10 AM : VersoFest 2025 Weekend Kickoff Celebration

come celebrate music, media, and creativity in style, hosted by visionary artist 5iveFingaz, with DJs and other fun fare for the whole family!

12 PM And 1 PM : Verso University Presents: Graffiti 101: Finding Your Voice as a Graffiti Artist

Explore basic graffiti techniques and hand-lettering skills in this fun, hands-on workshop led by globally renowned visionary artist 5iveFingaz! This workshop is open to all ages. Adult supervision is required for children under 13.

1 pm : VersoFest Panel: Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run at 50

A panel discussion on Bruce Springsteen's breakthrough album with Springsteen manager/producer Mike Appel; Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music executive director Bob Santelli; former Columbia Records executive Michael Pillot; author and music culture writer Kenneth Womack, and more; hosted by Arlen Schumer and Dick Wingate.

7 pm : Verso Visionary: Henry Rollins in Conversation with Nabil Ayers

Legendary Black Flag frontman and spoken word artist Henry Rollins, in conversation with Nabil Ayers, the founder of Beggers Records US.

April 6, 2025

11:00am : VersoFest Oral History Podcast: TELEVISION ROCKS! 

With Paul Shaffer, SNL band member and David Letterman music director, in conversation with SNL Beehive Queen Christine Ohlman. The television's on, it's late night, and there's music. Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen's era is over. David Letterman is the new, fresh face at NBC, and inside 30 Rock, Paul Shaffer is conjuring an enduring late-night template in song.

Straight out of years on the bandstand at Saturday Night Live in that very same building, and together with Steve Jordan, Will Lee, and the late Hiram Bullock, beginning in 1982 Shaffer will join his 1950s/1960s transistor radio memories with ours, celebrating the fabulous moments and fabulous tunes that reminded us on Letterman - every night - that the River of Popular Song is deep and wide … lifting, connecting, delighting, and inspiring us. Shaffer's place in pop culture as a music historian par excellence made him the natural choice to helm the house band for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions beginning in 1986, and The Maestro has continued - to this day - that ongoing love affair with the chords, the backbeat, the melody, the HEART of what makes a great song, well, great!

Date : April 3-6, 2025

Time :

April 3, 2025 at 7:00pm

April 4, 2025 at 8:30pm

April 5, 2025 at 10:00am

April 6, 2025 at 11:00am

Location :

The Westport Library    

20 Jesup Rd,

Westport, CT 06880

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