From Wednesday through Sunday, the Charlottesville community can expect the arrival of the Tom Tom Festival, one of the largest arts-related events in the city. According to the festival’s website, the Tom Tom Festival aims to “facilitate connections, build trust and inspire action” through several events, summits and performances.
The annual festival, which began in 2012, is themed around various concepts each year, with this year’s festival centered around the theme of courage. Paul Beyer, founder and executive director of the Tom Tom Foundation — a Charlottesville-based non-profit that plans the festival as well as other community-oriented programming throughout the year — wrote via an email statement to The Cavalier Daily that the festival expresses the theme of courage in various ways.
“Community itself is a courageous act, because it requires our engagement with people that may not agree with us,” Beyer wrote. “You’ll see that reflected across the festival … in artists expressing bold ideas, and in community members coming together across differences.”
The festival kicks off Wednesday with multiple seminars and discussions, including a summit dedicated to civic matters such as housing and fiscal sustainability. The summit is followed by a conversation with author John Grisham and Deirdre Enright, founder of the Innocence Project at the School of Law. This event, which will take place at the Paramount Theater, focuses on wrongful imprisonment and accountability in the justice system. An entrepreneurship-focused Innovation Summit on Thursday and Friday will feature several speakers from industries such as artificial intelligence, health and life sciences.
The largest event, however, is the Downtown Mall Block Party, which takes place Friday and Saturday. During the Block Party, the Downtown Mall fills with musical performances, street vendors and art installations. Notable performers at this year’s Tom Tom Festival include a cappella group the Hullabahoos, the University Salsa Club and reggae artist Mighty Joshua. Festival Production Manager Angelica Merritt wrote via an email statement to The Cavalier Daily about the experience of engaging with the Charlottesville community while planning the festival.
“As a recent transplant to the Charlottesville area, I have found this community to be incredibly warm, kind and welcoming,” Merritt wrote. “I’ve genuinely enjoyed connecting with local business owners and artists participating in this year’s festival.”
The last event in the Tom Tom Festival includes a series of miniature concerts titled “Porchella.” The event features a wide array of artists — from genres including rock, indie pop, bluegrass and traditional Cuban music — performing on various porches in the Belmont neighborhood, south of downtown Charlottesville. Merritt, who is responsible for planning the event, wrote that this artistic contribution, too, is an act of courage.
“Offering your art to your community is courageous,” Merritt wrote. “It directly contributes to emphasizing creativity and joy in a world that seriously needs it.”
Since its founding, the Tom Tom Festival has evolved in both its mission and its scale. Initially focused on community and creativity in Charlottesville, it has since expanded to also include themes of innovation and social change. Across its events, over 27,000 people engaged with the festival in 2025 alone. Beyer wrote that planning the festival is an evolutionary year-round process.
“As soon as one festival ends, we begin reflecting, gathering feedback and shaping the next year’s theme and priorities,” Beyer wrote. “It’s a large collaborative effort involving hundreds of partners, which is part of what makes the festival feel so reflective of the community.”
With thoughtful programming and large-scale events like the Downtown Mall Block Party, the Tom Tom Festival brings a sense of unity and celebration to Charlottesville. Through artistic performances and engaging discussions, attendees can reflect on the importance of building community and acting courageously to tackle major issues such as affordability and fiscal sustainability that affect the Charlottesville community. Beyer wrote that the connections people make are a valuable aspect of the festival.
“It’s one of the few moments each year when the entire community gathers together,” Beyer wrote. “For students especially, it’s a unique opportunity to engage with the broader community, meet people from all walks of life and be part of shaping conversations about the future.”
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