The 2025 Tomato Art Fest is this Friday and Saturday in East Nashville’s Five Points. It features activities and contests, a parade, Bloody Mary Garden Party, tomato art, and musician performances from Nashville artists Brennan Wedl, Gee Slab, Pressure Heaven, BEAN. and more. If you are looking for pre-festival activities, there’s a preview party on Thursday, or you can check out an unofficial celebration at the Pre-Mater Party happening at the East Room on Thursday, Aug. 7.
“Tomato (Art) Fest is one of those festivals that I personally enjoy,” Richard Scudder, who curated the comedy portion of the event, said. “I just like the common ground of arts appreciation. I was looking at the fest and looked originally for what is the pre-Tomato Fest party, whether it’s official or unofficial, and I really couldn’t find one. I thought somebody has to be the first one to throw it, so why not me? The comedy is going to the transition between bands. I’ve got Josh Black, he’s very well known in this community and he’s also a very good artist as far as paintings and drawings. He actually has showcases of his art around town. I also have James Holiday and he is a party. Got the right two comedians for the event. Kyle Scudder is going to do the DJing. He’s a well-established DJ, 10-plus years in this community. He plays a lot of venues. Before the rain set in, he actually did the opening set for Bonnaroo this year.“
“Tomato Art Fest for me, personally, right off the bat, let’s go ahead and agree it’s the hottest time of the year, but it’s also my favorite time of year because it’s probably the main thing that makes me feel like proud to live in East Nashville for as long as I have,” talent buyer and general manager for the East Room Taylor Cole said. “It makes me feel like any cool farming simulator game I’ve ever played, like they have a little community thing they attend. I’m like, ‘This is that for me.’ I just love it, and getting to see the art and fun bands. The people playing, the people involved, I think it’s just all meant to make you smile real big. You can go into Tomato Fest feeling great about yourself and check out people’s weird tomato yard art. Somebody had a Jelly Roll tomato in their yard recently. He had all the tattoos on the tomato.”
Additional event opportunities in the next week include:
Thursday night (Aug. 7) Ozomatli performs at Cannery Hall’s Mainstage. At Cannery’s Row One Stage on Friday night (Aug. 8) Chiddy Bang performs and Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears Weird Jazz is at The Blue Room. On Tuesday (Aug. 12), The Weeknd takes the stage at Nissan Stadium.