VersoFest 2025 Panel Discussion: Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run at 50

Join us for a special, all-star VersoFest panel discussion celebrating the 50th anniversary of Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen’s breakthrough 1975 album — a seminal work that is widely considered to be one of the greatest rock albums of the 20th century.

The discussion will be hosted by Arlen Schumer, author, pop culture historian, and the art director of Thunder Road, the first magazine dedicated to Springsteen’s life and music; and Dick Wingate, former music industry senior executive and current Verso Studios advisory board member who, while at Columbia Records, product managed Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Schumer and Wingate will be joined by an all-star panel including:

· Mike Appel, Springsteen’s first manager and the co-producer of Born to Run

· Michael Pillot, former Columbia Records promotions director

· Robert Santelli, executive director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music

· Kenneth Womack, music historian and co-author of 2024 Rutgers University Press book, Bruce Songs

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VersoFest is The Westport Library’s annual music and media conference and festival, where knowledge is shared and inspiration is discovered — a forum for media creators, artists, and fans to converge. VersoFest includes panels where experts share their perspective and vision; intimate workshops provide creators the opportunity to deconstruct, improve, and hone their craft; performances entertain and inspire.

Among the guests scheduled for this year’s festival include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and National Book Award winner Patti Smith, legendary Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins, David Letterman music director Paul Shaffer, and author Andrea Warner, plus an art exhibit, a gospel revival, and much more.

Learn all about the festival and who will be appearing at VersoFest.org.

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With your registration/ticket purchase, the bearer is entitled to one Complimentary Margarita, Paloma, or Aguafresca at Don Memo, Westport. Please show your registration upon arrival. Thank you.

Host or Publisher The Westport Library