15th Annual Tomato Art Fest

From 15th Annual Tomato Art Fest Website:

The 15th annual Tomato Art Fest's 2-day celebration welcomes everyone to East Nashville for a fun and wacky day of art, music, food, costumes, contests, shopping, kids activities, & more!

Tomato Art Fest returns August 10th and 11th, 2018 for the 15th year! Located in Historic East Nashville's Five Points, this free, costume-encouraged event provides a wildly entertaining, fun-filled day for all types and all-ages. A community builder, Tomato Art Fest has steadily drawn larger crowds with each passing year. In 2017, an estimated 60,000 came to celebrate this beloved fruit / vegetable and enjoy the day's memorable festivities.

The Fest was founded by Meg and Bret MacFadyen, owners of East Nashville's Art and Invention Gallery. In 2004, the gallery hosted an art show celebrating the tomato in late summer, and planned a few neighborhood events to promote the show. The Tomato Art Fest proved so popular that it immediately turned into an annual, signature event for the hip, urban neighborhood of East Nashville.

The essence of Tomato Art Fest can really be found in the array of wacky & hilarious contests, and the Push, Pull & Wear Parade kicking off tomato weekend, full of floats and costumes. This year, (year fourteen!), the festival is boldly reaching for a world record attempt for the Most People Dressed in Tomato Gear (wish us luck!), and TURBO Nashville, part of the Nashville Civic Design Center 's Reclaiming Public Space initiative, is back this year with their incredible installation of tactical urbanism dedicated to improving our community's built environment. True to our namesake, the ART gets a big part of the tomato spotlight, where Art & Invention showcases over 300 tomato-inspired pieces throughout the weekend.