“Aren’t you supposed to be quiet in a library?” Spin Doctors lead singer Chris Barron asked the assembled crowd of nearly 600 during the band’s Friday night concert at VersoFest 2024. “This is, like, the loudest thing that’s ever happened at a library!”
For five rollicking days, Barron was on the money. From April 3 to April 7, The Westport Library played host to its third annual VersoFest — a music and media festival like no other, featuring concerts, panel discussions, workshops, and so much more — and while it was rarely quiet, it was quite a show.
This year’s festival had something for everyone, including concerts with The Lemon Twigs and Spin Doctors, and Verso Visionary conversations with the legendary Chuck D (Public Enemy), renowned producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex), and influential drummer and musician John Densmore (The Doors).
In addition, there was a celebration of of Wild Style, the first hip hop motion picture; a fashion roundtable with Cindy Dunaway, Dennis Dunaway (Alice Cooper Group), and Tish and Snooky of Manic Panic, hosted by SNL Beehive Queen and rock 'n' roll treasure Christine Ohlman; a panel discussion on Connecticut, WPLR, and the birth of Buckingham/Nicks era Fleetwood Mac; and a Verso Book Club featuring Audrey Golden, author of I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records.
All told, more than 4,000 attended VersoFest 2024, with an additional 3,000 tuning in online, and capacity crowds filling the Trefz Forum each day.
“This is not your regular library,” Cindy Dunaway said in a radio interview prior to VersoFest. “This is what every library in every major city should be like because it is such a resource for the community and for all the towns around and so on. They do just a magnificent job of integrating music and the arts, books as well.”
To that end, VersoFest 2024 carved out space amid its stacks Saturday and Sunday for a record fair featuring vendors from across the tri-state area, a “Diamond Dogs” exhibit of David Bowie memorabilia curated by Paul Brenton and featuring pioneering stage designer Mark Ravitz, and a dedicated art exhibit (Thinking Inside the Box) built into the Trefz Forum’s grandstand. The festival also featured intimate workshops with resident experts covering podcasting, musician career coaching, video game music composing, the secrets of radio airplay, and the legal side of the music business.
The integration of concerts and conversations, panels and workshops, exhibits and more resonated with the assembled guests, speakers, and presenters, who marveled at the Library’s state-of-the-art facilities (TV studio, SSL recording studio, 18-foot HD videowall, post-production suite) and its ability to merge music, media, and creativity in celebration of the arts.
“We’re all students trying to figure out how to become human beings in this communication of life,” Chuck D said during the VersoFest opening night conversation. “I believe culture is a thing that equalizes us as human beings and knocks the differences to the side. It connects our similarities. It’s what makes music and art so strong.”
And it all came together at The Westport Library, all furthering the Library’s mission of being open to all and serving as a gather spot for the community to share ideas, learn, and grow — and sometimes, just to get loud and have fun.
As Densmore said after his talk, succinctly: “This the coolest damn library, ever!”
***
Photos by Brendan Toller, Verso Studios, Westport Library, and Dave Dellinger, Dave Dellinger Photography
***
