The 7th annual Tomtoberfest celebrated the groups that build Charlottesville
Charlottesville, VA (September 30, 2018) — Yesterday, Tom Tom welcomed more than 5,000 revelers to Tomtoberfest, a day-long party and showcase at IX Art Park. This fall event concluded Tom Tom’s 2018 season by featuring over 125 community businesses and nonprofit organizations and highlighting their positive impact on Charlottesville. Tomtoberfest was one of the dozens of free events that the Tom Tom Foundation hosted this year.
An inaugural Tomtoberfest cornhole tournament was complemented by a Community Mixer, a Tech Mixer, a Community Investment Collaborative Showcase, a Craft Cville pop-up artisan market, and an 11-hour free concert series featuring an all-local line-up.
The tournament alone featured 33 teams. In the final round, WillowTree, an internationally lauded technology company with 200 employees in Charlottesville, competed against the Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle, an essential nonprofit offering free one-on-one tutoring for adults. Literacy Volunteers pulled out the win.
At Tomtoberfest, Tom Tom also announced the dates and themes of the 2019 Tom Tom Festival. Over the week of April 8-14, 2019, the eighth annual Tom Tom will focus on “Building”. The essential community groups represented at Tomtoberfest are the foundation for this work in Charlottesville and Albemarle.
“Tom Tom champions entrepreneurship, creativity, and civic innovation in small cities across America, and for us, that always starts with our own hometown of Charlottesville,” Festival Director and Charlottesville native Paul Beyer said. “The core to building better hometowns is a robust collaborative conversation. Especially after setbacks and tragedy– how do communities embrace a unified vision for the future that speaks to people of all backgrounds?”
Tom Tom’s hundreds of speakers and dozens of free events in the spring will explore questions of affordable housing, race and reconciliation, economic development, education, sustainability, placemaking, and innovation as they relate to Charlottesville— and all small cities across the nation.
Further details for April 2019 will be released in the coming month.
A full list of groups can be found at www.tomtomfest.com/tomberfest.
2018 Tomtoberfest Photo Highlights can be found here: Photo credit Jason Surma Photography
ABOUT THE TOM TOM FOUNDATION
Tom Tom champions entrepreneurship, creativity, and civic innovation in America’s small cities. Now in its eighth year, Tom Tom has carved out a distinctive voice in the festival and conference landscape nationally. Drawing more than 20,000 attendees annually, Tom Tom convenes hundreds of speakers to discuss the future of industry and a revitalized approach to civic life, alongside a cultural experience of music, art, food, and community events. The Festival spills through dozens of venues in the historic downtown of Charlottesville, VA over Thomas Jefferson’s birthday week each April. Speakers include iconic innovators like Dan Rather, John Cleese, founders from Reddit, Honest Tea, the New York Times, Washington Post, IDEO, Meow Wolf and the Atlantic, and thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs and civic leaders.
SPONSORS
Tomtoberfest was hosted by C-Ville Weekly and New Belgium Brewing and is part of WTJU’s Freefall Concert Series. It is also generously underwritten by a number of leading organizations, including the University of Virginia, American Evolution, Unmasky Honda, Quantitative Foundation, Blue Ridge A/V and Lighting, i.Lab at UVA, IX Artpark, Custom Ink, R.L. Beyer Custom Homes, ACAC, CoConstruct, Sir Speedy, St Anne’s Belfield School, the Curry School of Education, WillowTree, Buskey Hard Cider, Charlottesville Tomorrow, WBA: White, Beckert & Associates, Historic Downtown Mall, Wegmans, Wild Wolf Brewing Company, Champion Brewing Company, Solovis, Silverchair, NWG Solutions, Violet Crown, CCRi, Virginia Diodes, CIC, Redstar Merchandise, Cville Biohub, ArcheMedX, Scitent, Generation 180, and Jefferson Technology.