Civic Coffee Hour at Eco Evolution.

Ever wanted to get more involved in Norwalk but didn’t know where to start? That’s the whole point of this. Norwalk Joiners hosts a low-key coffee hour at Eco Evolution — show up, grab a drink, meet the people already doing the work, and find a way in. No agenda, no pitch, just a door held open. Saturday, 3–5 PM, 135 Washington St. Free.

Make Music Day started in France in 1982 and now runs in a thousand-plus cities on June 21 every year — the idea is dead simple: free music, made by anyone, out in public, on the longest day of the year. Norwalk joins in with performances across the city’s streets, parks and plazas, all free, all ages, all day. You don’t buy a ticket and you don’t pick a stage — you wander, and the music finds you. This year it doubles as the summer solstice and Father’s Day, which makes it about the easiest plan there is: take the old man outside, follow the sound, stay as long as the light holds. Check Visit Norwalk for the lineup and locations as they firm up.

Lineup & locations →

Norwalk Art Festival — two days at Mathews Park

Gordon Fine Arts runs its juried fine-art-and-craft festival across the lawns of Mathews Park both weekend days — working artists selling the real thing, live performances, a food court, and hands-on art activities for the kids. Free to walk in. It’s the kind of slow-afternoon-with-a-coffee event that a park like Mathews was made for, and it pairs neatly with whatever else you’re doing on the same grounds this weekend.

Details →

Horace Silver Jazz Festival — Norwalk honors its own

Horace Silver was born here in Norwalk in 1928 and went on to become one of the architects of hard bop — the funky, blues-soaked, gospel-tinged sound that defined a whole era of jazz. This free festival at Factory Underground brings together artists, educators, and community leaders to celebrate him on home ground. Six hours of music on a Sunday afternoon, no cover. If you only know one Norwalk name in jazz, it should be this one.

Details & RSVP →

Horace Silver — honored at Factory Underground this Sunday — was born in Norwalk in 1928, the son of a Cape Verdean immigrant who’d come to work in this harbor town. He grew up here, started on saxophone, switched to piano, and went on to write “Song for My Father,” a tune so durable that Steely Dan lifted its bassline for “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” a decade later. The Cape Verdean folk music his father played turns up all through his records. Not bad for a kid from a Connecticut oyster town: a corner of Galveston-to-Norwalk jazz history, written by a local, that the whole world ended up humming.

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