Norfolk’s Infinity Hall building changes hands, but the music goes on
GoodWorks Entertainment has decided to give up ownership of the landmark building in Norfolk that houses Infinity Music Hall, while continuing to hold concerts there.
“We’re concert promoters, not real estate folks,” says Tyler Grill, the CEO and co-founder of GoodWorks Entertainment.
“The town is creating a 501c3 nonprofit organization,” Grill explains, “and we are donating the building to that. Everything about Infinity Music Hall will stay as it is. We’re still operating it. We own the sound and lighting equipment.”
The building at 20 Greenwoods Road West in Norfolk was built as an opera house in 1883 and also housed a barber shop and saloon. There have been extensive renovations over the decades, but the original stage area remains and is used for the Infinity Hall concerts.
“It’s really expensive,” Grill says. “With a nonprofit, they can raise money through grants and donations. Also, the town will have a place for town meetings. They’ll be able to rent out parts of the building.”
Grill says the building will likely be renamed, perhaps with “Norfolk” in its title. “Then it will be ‘Infinity Hall Presents At ...’ whatever the name of the building will be.” Like the new name of the building, the name of the non-profit that will run it has also not been decided.
Grill says that Infinity Music Hall’s continued use of its space in the building will not involve a rental or lease agreement and will be part of the negotiation around its donation of the building to the nonprofit.
Due to the transition, Infinity Music Hall Norfolk only has a handful of shows on its schedule right now, including singer/songwriter Todd Snider on Sept. 9, the Irish band Altan on Oct. 22, legendary folk-pop artist Janis Ian on Nov. 6 and the bagpipe-based rock band Celtica Nova on Nov. 18. Grill says those shows are all happening as planned. He expects that by mid-fall, sometime in November, they will be up and having shows.
“We’re still transferring this over,” Grill says. “It will be a cleaner transfer if we don’t have a lot of shows there right now.”
Norfolk’s is the original Infinity Music Hall venue in Connecticut. A second Infinity Hall opened on Front Street in Hartford in 2014. GoodWorks Entertainment acquired the venues in 2019.
Touring acts are frequently booked into both Infinity Music Hall locations, playing them a day or two apart. GoodWorks Entertainment also books the Fairfield Theatre Company performance spaces in Fairfield. GoodWorks also books bands into Stony Creek Brewery, Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgeport and elsewhere. This summer it worked with the City of Hartford to create the new “Hartford Live” free concert series on the grounds of Hartford’s Old State House.
Grill is currently in Charlestown, Rhode Island, where he was supervising the building of stages for the upcoming Rhythm & Roots Festival. GoodWorks Entertainment announced in the spring that it would now be producing the festival, which had existed for nearly a quarter of a century under a different producer. The festival runs Sept. 2-4 and features dozens of major Cajun, Zydeco, blues, country, bluegrass and Americana acts.
Whether GoodWorks would continue to produce concerts in Norfolk was never in doubt.
“This was the first Infinity Music Hall,” Grill says. “It’s extremely important to us — that location and that town. That’s why we’re doing this. Not many organizations donate a building. This will help the town.”
Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.
