If you’ve seen the Westport Library looking extra-cool these recent nights, there’s a reason.
(Graphic by John Nunziato)
The blue lights are reminders that VersoFest ’26 — the 5th annual music/media/ and much more festival — arrives soon.
There are 4 full days of concerts, panels, art shows and the like. Highlights include a concert by Wyclef Jean, and a talk with Ani DiFranco. Click here for full details.
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Speaking of VersoFest: Yesterday, “06880” explored the back story of the Library’s promotional AI jingles.
A deeper dig into how AI is shaping the music industry is on tap this coming Sunday (March 29, 10:30 a.m., Library).
Executives from Suno, LANDR, Incantio and Chord Music Partners will discuss how AI is shaping the music the industry. A special “Coffee with the C-Suite: Creators, Technologists, and Music’s AI Frontier” panel features leaders from across music tech, rights investment, AI creation tools, and licensing platforms, discussing seismic shifts redefining the industry.
Among the speakers: Westporter Sam Hendel, managing partner at Chord Music Partners and Dundee Partners. Music industry veteran Dick Wingate — another local resident — will moderate the session. Click here for more details.
To try it yourself, Suno hosts a hands-on workshop afterward (noon to 4 p.m.). Attendees can experiment with the same tools used to create the AI jingles. Click here to reserve a 30-minute spot.
Sam Hendel
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One of Westport’s biggest and best Easter Egg Hunts is set for this Saturday (March 28, Gilbertie’s Herbs & Garden Center).
The event — sponsored colorfully, as always, by WestportMoms — is actually 2 hunts. Ages 2 to 5 start at 10:30 a.m. Ages 6 and up follow at 11:15.
Along with the egg hunts and pictures with the Easter Bunny, youngsters will enjoy fairy hair, glitter tattoos, face painting, cookie decorating, STEM and sports games, music and more (including 20 “golden eggs” with prizes).
There will also be a food truck, plus donuts from Retreat Sweets.
Click here for tickets, and more information.
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The Mamas and the Papas, Byrds, Doors, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young, James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and the Eagles were all at the Westport Country Playhouse last night.
Not in person, unfortunately. But their familiar music got fresh interpretations, in an intriguing and very well-received show.
“Live from Laurel Canyon – Songs and Stories of American Folk Rock” was an evening of live music and narrated stories of some of the most influential songwriters who lived in Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and ’70s
Great music from half a century ago has endured well.
Including — perhaps especially — Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”
Laurel Canyon musicians, at the Playhouse. (Photo/Lauri Weiser)
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Extra! Extra!
The curtain rises Friday on “Newsies.” Coleytown Company’s fun-for-all ages musical — inspired by the true story of the 1899 newsboys’ strike in New York City — has been in high gear ever since Westport native Adam Kaplan (a member of the Broadway cast) taught a master class to the young CMS actors.
Show times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday (March 27 and 28), 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (March 28 and 29).
Click here for tickets, and more information. The Company’s Instagram is @coleytown_company.
“Newsies” has a great cast — and set. (Photo/Meg Stewart)
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Spring is creeping ever so slowly into Westport.
Clarence Hayes writes: “It’s been a ritual for me to listen for spring peepers for 40 years — ever since I took my 7-year-old kids to hear them at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, coming up from the city.
“At a swamp there at dusk, it is literally deafening. I take my grandkids there now.
“But we have them in Westport too, in little bits of spring excess water scattered around town.
“This video is from a vernal pond behind my condo next to I-95. You can clearly hear them over the highway noise.”
PS: This week looks to be partly cloudy, partly sunny. The temperature will be in the 40s and 50s — except Thursday, when it could reach the low 60s.
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Today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo proves that everyone — everyone! — is sitting around, waiting for spring.
Library Riverewalk. (Photo/John Maloney)
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And finally … on this date in 1857, Elisha Otis’ first elevator was installed, at 488 Broadway in New York.
(“06880” is to local news what Aerosmith is to “elevator music.” If you enjoy our hyper-local blog — and the 4 to 6 stories we post a day — please click here to support our work. Thank you!
🍻to Otis ‼️🍺