Good Neighbor Festivals' Jack Davis
Remember when rain poured down on Tomato Art Fest last year and sent hundreds of festivalgoers scurrying for shelter, but then the crowds came roaring back as soon as the skies cleared? That dogged determination to party is unique to Nashville, says Jack Davis, founder of Good Neighbor Festivals.
Davis and his eight staff members own and manage that festival, as well as Light the Nations, East Nash Holiday Bash and All Hallows East, among others around town. They are also hired to put on Nashville Pride, the Middle Tennessee Highland Games and Celtic Festival and other festivals owned by nonprofits. Davis took a break from preparing for an estimated 65,000 people to descend on Five Points for a weekend of live music, art and community hangs at this year’s Tomato Art Fest (see more on that in this week’s Critics’ Picks section) to talk with the Scene about what makes a festival great.
What are some of the best memories you have of Tomato Art Fest?
I think for me, the highlight of the event every year is the parade. Thousands of people come out. They have spent time and energy and created something unique and “East Nashville.” It’s just cool to watch the community come together and be a part of that, instead of going to an event and watching it.
It does seem like the buy-in is special for that festival. Is that true across festivals you work on?
For festivals like the Tomato Art Festival or Light the Nations, at the end of the day, they are community-driven. They start out community-driven, and as they grow it gets harder and harder to keep that organic piece. And we try as hard as possible to continue to have tons of opportunities for people to participate.
Can you describe the day of a festival?
They are whirlwind weekends. There are always pieces that I can pull out, like just seeing people come out and enjoy, or put their phone down for a couple hours or show off a costume they’ve been thinking about or making for a month or two. It’s really a unique, cool experience to be a part of, but it’s hard for me to describe the day of. … Our crew does a really good job of making sure that it’s as smooth as possible.
What is the biggest misconception about your line of work?
The general response is like, “Oh, that’s really cool.” Also, you can tell they feel like, “I don’t really understand what that is. I’ve been to an event, I have fun. It must be really fun.” And it is, but there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t see, and if we’re doing our job right, they shouldn’t see. I actually take pride when people don’t quite understand all of the things that go into that — because if they did, something wasn’t smooth.
I think most people just don’t grasp the amount of coordination that it takes to work with and interact — not only with all the customers, but then there’s the Tomato Art Festival’s about 250 vendors and bars, and then you’ve got the neighborhood and the people you’re impacting, and the restaurants and the businesses. All of those folks are players in the event being successful.
What would you credit to Nashville’s — and especially East Nashville’s — community being so strong?
I think that communities are built by a number of things. I haven’t been around long enough, but in the history of East Nashville there have been a lot of moments where the neighborhood has needed to come together, whether that was COVID, whether that was multiple tornadoes over the years. A lot of the business owners live and work in the neighborhood. It’s walkable.
Selfishly, I think that festivals help that significantly. You have something that you can bring anyone that doesn’t live in the neighborhood to, to show them what your neighborhood is about.
