Tomato Art Fest in East Nashville

Every summer in Nashville, our selection of tomato-themed items expands to quite a large display! A quick drive around the neighborhood reveals tomato flags in yard after yard. Some houses decorate with tomato garlands and even dioramas (there is a house decorating contest after all!). I love it when our out-of-town shoppers ask us "What's with all the tomatoes?"

As a life-long Nashville gal, I can say I was here when the first Tomato Art Fest was imagined up by Art & Invention Gallery owner Meg MacFadyen. August is historically a very slow month for retail, so she looked around at the abundance of tomatoes growing in everyone's gardens and thought - let's have some fun! She had a tomato-themed art show, tomato-themed contests, a tomato party, and boom - a tradition was born. I think there even was a tomato toss where tomatoes were thrown at a local eyesore about to be torn down! 🍅 🍅 🍅

20+ years later, it's still going strong with contests such as "Beautiful Tomato", "Tomato Recipe", and "Tomato Haiku". There is a parade that goes through the neighborhood with tomato-themed floats sponsored by businesses and anyone who wants to pitch in.  It's truly a great celebration of the community in East Nashville. You should check out their instagram for the full picture!

My shop isn't in the middle of the Tomato Fest, but we are definitely close enough to have our street parking full and watch groups of people dressed in red, green, and all kinds of colorful tomato-themed outfits. Last year, we offered free face painting - tomatoes of course - to anyone who walked by. It was a hit so we did it again this year!

How often do you get a chance to get your face painted as an adult?? (plenty of kiddos get painted, too!) My favorite tomato design was dreamed up by my employee Sophia who came up with the idea of tomato freckles. This year, my teenage daughter and a friend braved the heat and painted away. I think the tomato freckles were the most popular! I really wish I had taken more photos of the finished looks - the painters did an incredible job.

Not only do we do face painting the day of, we design custom tomato flags for all the East Nashville yards and beyond. I have a 3D printer at my house, so I printed tons of tomato clicker fidgets to give away. I also designed some limited edition tomato jewelry as well as having an artist make some for us. The tomato is a uniter! 

If you ever wonder what's up with the tomatoes in East Nashville, now you know! It's every year on the first weekend of August, right when gardeners in town have more tomatoes than they know what to do with. Except for me who cannot grow tomatoes no matter how hard I've tried! Luckily my studio manager Lindsay grows them like a champion and does. not. like. them. WHAT?!? So yay more for me!