This is a test News item!

$10,000 & $250,000 Competitions: Apply Now!

Release! UVA Darden Partners with TTFF on $10K Pitch Night

Tom Tom Call For Interns

Tom Tom Fest Art Series Focuses on Community Creativity

DAILY PROGRESS: Tom Tom unveils April 13 block party plans

Media Advisory: Tom Tom opening gala is 10-band block party at McGuffey

CVILLE Weekly: “Tom Tom Fest inks music lineup”

WINA: The Coy Barefoot Show

Media Advisory: Tom Tom Unveils Initial Lineup for May 11 & 12

MEDIA ADVISORY: Tom Tom Founders Festival Launches

DAILY PROGRESS: “Ex-Council hopeful plans music event to highlight Jefferson’s city”

THE HOOK: “New fest: SXSW inspires TTFF”

Tom Tom T-shirts!

December 08, 2013 | By: acentofante | Tags: merchandise, 10k pitch competition, pitch competition, mcguffey

Wow look at all these cool formatting options I have here!

 

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Suspendisse eget rhoncus urna, eleifend scelerisque turpis. In blandit libero in libero fringilla, et tincidunt lacus pulvinar. Integer ante felis, lobortis non facilisis vel, eleifend eu felis. Integer a bibendum arcu, at rhoncus purus. Praesent tincidunt, leo sed rutrum ullamcorper, libero lectus accumsan tortor, porta euismod turpis nisi ut nulla. Sed sed convallis ligula, nec rutrum diam. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Etiam posuere fringilla tortor ut ultrices. Proin blandit mauris ipsum, sed lobortis mauris bibendum nec. Duis semper lectus diam, in pretium nibh consectetur nec. Vivamus luctus aliquet tincidunt. Aenean iaculis suscipit augue. In nisl nulla, condimentum eget laoreet vel, laoreet sed tortor. Integer vulputate, nisi malesuada laoreet adipiscing, magna felis porta diam, a tempus turpis purus sit amet arcu. Phasellus suscipit posuere rhoncus. Phasellus iaculis porttitor felis ac vulputate.

March 01, 2013 | By: pbeyer | Tags: 10k pitch competition, 250k galant challenge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


Applications now open for $10,000 and $250,000 Pitch Competitions at Tom Tom Founders Festival on April 11-14.
- $10,000 to be awarded at U.Pitch. C’ville Decides. Crowd chosen Community Pitch night.
- $250,000 Galant Challenge Semifinalists compete at live angel investing opportunity.



April 11, 2013: Opening festivities of Tom Tom Founders Festival include the U.Pitch. C’ville Decides. competition, a Batten and Tom-Tom co-hosted, community pitch night that celebrates the expansion of the i.Lab at U.Va. The ten finalists will represent entrepreneurs of all kinds in the community − creative artists, students, innovators, amateurs, professionals and enthusiasts. The Batten Institute at Darden will award $10,000 in total to the competition’s top three winners: $5,000 to first place, $3,000 to second place, and $2,000 to third place. The winners will be selected by event attendees. The “U.Pitch. C’ville Decides.” competition winner will also receive the option to be admitted into the newly expanded i.Lab Incubator program. Email your completed application form to: 10k.u.pitch@gmail.com.

April 14, 2013: Concluding event of Tom Tom is the $250,000 Wildcard, the semifinals to the Galant Challenge. The best and brightest from UVa student research and creativity compete in a pitch event where student teams convince angel investors and venture capitalists they deserve the seed funding to launch their businesses. Think “Shark Tank” in Charlottesville. In the Tom Tom Wildcard, the ten semi-finalists will pitch their ideas, and get feedback from a panel of judges. Three finalists will be chosen, two by the judges and one by the crowd, to convene on April 25 for the Galant Finals. Email your application to: galantchallenge@comm.virginia.edu.

Applications for both Events close at 11:59PM on Friday March 22.

Winners will be announced Friday April 5.


About the Tom Tom Founders Festival
Tom Tom Founders Festival is an annual festival in and around the historic Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia. Its mission is to educate the public about entrepreneurship and innovation in Charlottesville and spur the creation of more public art. The Tom Tom weekend on April 11-14 features innovation talks, block parties, concerts, pitch competitions, and creative expos that catalyze innovation by converging music, art, design and technology to connect people and new ideas for the future. (www.tomtomfest.com)


#####

Paul Beyer, Director
Tom Tom Founders Festival
www.tomtomfest.com
c. 434.981.7045

February 01, 2013 | By: pbeyer | Tags: darden, uva, community, pitch competition

The Batten Institute Partners With Tom Tom Founders Festival On Community Pitch Night and Launch of Expanded Innovation Lab

- $10,000 to be Awarded in U.Pitch. C'ville Decides. Competition, Co-Hosted by Batten and Tom Tom and to be held 11 April in Celebration of the Expansion of the i.Lab at U.Va. -

Charlottesville, VA - January 31, 2013 - The Batten Institute at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business today announced that it is working with the Tom Tom Founders Festival to convene a community pitch night as part of a celebration of the expansion of the Innovation Lab, or i.Lab, at the University of Virginia.


Official Release


"UVa, Tom Tom Festival to Unveil Innovation Lab Expansion" - NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA

"UVa to Co-Host Competition at Tom Tom Fest" - Newsplex/CBS19 Charlottesville, VA

"UVa, Tom Tom to co-sponsor entrepreneurial contest" - Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA

"Innovation Boom: Batten Institute gives local entrepreneurs a boost" - The Hook, Charlottesville, VA

August 22, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: No tags where found.

Calling all social media savants, marketing monkeys, musicians, designers, planners, and Jacks-of-All-Trades! This past spring, Tom Tom Founders Fest 2012 launched: two block parties, a month of creative events, and a 60+ band music festival on the Downtown Mall. The theme was Charlottesville as a creative hub for music, art & innovation.

TTFF 2013 is just around the corner, and now is the time to throw in your hat towards the sequel. Two large events this fall, and then the festival in April 2013.

We are accepting applications for three new internships, and we’re eager to incorporate your know-how, passion, and ideas...

1. EVENT PLANNING COORDINATOR
- Helping put on impactful, memorable events, and coordinating the logistics involved
- Interfacing with a range of university and community leaders

2. PROGRAMMING ASSISTANT
MUSIC
- Booking and managing diverse talent for the festival / block parties
- Coordinating venue, show, and promotion logistics
ARTS
- Assembling artist residencies and community workshops
- Coordinating arts events / programming / lectures
INNOVATION
- Reaching out to speakers for presentations and panels
- Brainstorming creative events that spur entrepreneurship & start-ups that enrich the whole of C-ville

3. PROMOTIONAL ASSISTANT
- Coordinating print, radio, and social media advertising
- Outreaching to blogs and media
- design background preferred

Expect 8-10 hours per week of work. Interns must be able to get to our downtown office (public transportation is available). Check out www.tomtomfest.com to see what you’re getting into and understand what last year was all about. Your inspirations & ideas will be asked for in the interview process.


Cover letters and resumes due by Wednesday, September 5th.

Contact:
Travis Dennis, Intern Coordinator
(703) 618-9369, ttd5r@virginia.edu


April 18, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: arts, mcguffey, city as canvas

April 18, 2012

The Tom Tom Founders Festival of music, art and innovation, taking place in Charlottesville from Apr. 13 to May 13, today announced details of its free series of arts events. The series, part of a month of free public events known as the "City as Canvas", and sponsored by the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau, features two free community days, TTFF Artists in Residence, and collaborations with various local arts groups including the Charlottesville Jazz Society and the Piedmont Council of the Arts.

The two largest events are the community days at the McGuffey Art Center on April 13 and the IX Project on May 13. The McGuffey event, which took place on Friday, April 13, featured a 13 band block party and a street food fair.


Nick Strocchia Photography

The IX Project, a 17 acre site downtown, will host the concluding community concert on Sunday, May 13 (Mother’s Day) in collaboration with the Music Resource Center (MRC) and First Baptist on West Main Street. In addition to children’s games, “Field Day” activities, food, and public art, there will be student performances from the MRC featuring original student hip-hop, rap and dance. The day will also feature performances from professional musicians in gospel, r&B, bluegrass and rock. Darlene Vango, a gospel performer and winner of the WUVA 92.7 Kiss FM 2012 Talent Competition, will sing. Pastor Hodari Hamilton of First Baptist will host the Gospel portion. Additional acts will be released later in the month.


The month of Arts programming will highlight two Artists in Residence:

- Ed Miller & Kate Daughdrill. Ed Miller is a visiting professor in UVA’s Fine Art Department. The public sculpture Ed is creating on April 13 & May 13 will ultimately be placed at Baker-Butler Elementary School. He will be giving a talk about his work on April 23 at 7PM at Tom Tom Headquarters (105 S. 1st St).
http://www.tomtomfest.com/events/evententry/ed-miller-sculpture

Ed Miller at McGuffey
Billy Emory Photography

- Detroit-based Kate Daughdrill has been featured in national publications numerous times for her community engagement work. Daughdrill will be creating public street art from April 19-22 on the Downtown Mall and adjacent streets with a bird-seed stencil. Daughdrill will lead a workshop as part of Tom Tom on April 22 at the Garage (250 1st St N) to discuss her process.
http://www.tomtomfest.com/events/evententry/kate-daughdrill

Festival Director, Paul Beyer, notes: “Tom Tom arts is an exhibition of the City’s creativity and hospitality to artists. One reason Tom Tom is a month long is so that the stage can be opened up to everyone.” All Arts events are free.

Tom Tom is also collaborating with a number of arts and community organizations throughout the month. “The intention was to take what everyone was already doing,” Beyer notes, “And join it together into something larger and cohesive.” Partner events include:

• Latte Art Competition. 4/21 – Para Coffee sponsors competition with barristas across the commonwealth. (Para Coffee, 7-9PM)
• Poetry Competition – 4/24 – Poets from around the City square off in an hour long writing contest followed by a performance of all work created. Co-sponsored by Presence, Para Coffee, and Verbs & Vibe (Tom Tom Headquarters, 6:30-9:00)
• Jazz From the Library Steps – 4/26 – In conjuction with Jazz Appreciation month and the Charlottesville Jazz Society, a free live jazz performance and a jazz film screening. (5:30-7:00)
• School of Rock Workshop – 5/6 – Local photographer Tom Daly will give a workshop to aspiring entertainment photographers, with skills that can be put to use in the festival weekend! (Tom Tom Headquarters, 7PM)

Full details and schedule at http://www.tomtomfest.com/city-as-canvas

###



Nick Strocchia Photography

April 09, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: music, festival

Published: March 30, 2012

The Tom Tom Founders Festival is starting its month-long celebration of music, art and innovation with a kickoff block party on April 13 at McGuffey Art Center.

The Founder’s Day event will include outdoor performances on the McGuffey’s steps from 5 to 8 p.m. Bands will include Beleza Brasil, the Downbeat Project, the Olivarez Trio and the African dance troupe Chihamba.

A block of Second Street Northwest in front of McGuffey — between Market Street and West Jefferson Street — will be closed to provide space for the block party, which will include activities for children.

After 8 p.m., the music moves inside. Bands will include Hot Twang!, the Eames Coleman Trio, the Invisible Hand, Borrowed Beams of Light, Dwight Howard Johnson and DJ Kris Bowmaster. The back-to-back musical performances will take place on all three floors of the building.

Sculptor Ed Miller will be making an interactive plaster sculpture on the McGuffey lawn, and visitors will be able to help him create the work’s surface texture. Miller, a visiting professor in studio art at the University of Virginia, is a festival artist in residence.

During the block party, festival organizers will announce the full schedule of events and its other artists in residence and innovators in residence.

The outdoor music will be sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Company, and beer sales will benefit the Dreamfield Foundation.

The festival will conclude with a music festival weekend from May 11 to 13. Learn more about the events at www.tomtom2012.com.

March 28, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: music

March 29, 2012

TOM TOM FOUNDERS FESTIVAL'S OPENING GALA IS 10-BAND BLOCK PARTY AT McGUFFEY

Tom Tom Founders Festival, the month-long music, art & innovation festival, announced today full details of its FREE April 13 (Founder's Day) kickoff party at the McGuffey Arts Center. Running from roughly 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Apr. 13, the party will feature 10 local bands -- from bluegrass and rock to punk, spoken word, and jazz -- playing outside and inside McGuffey, public art projects and children's activities on the McGuffey lawn, and a street food fair.

The one block of Second Street NW in front of the McGuffey (between Market St. and West Jefferson St.) will be closed down to form a block party compound. Outside performances, will occur from 5 to 8 p.m., and indoor performances from 8 to 11:30 p.m. New Belgium Brewing Company will sponsor the music. Beer sales will benefit The Dreamfield Foundation.

Sculptor Ed Miller, a festival artist-in-residence and a visiting professor in studio art at the University of Virginia, will be working on the McGuffey lawn with an interactive plaster sculpture, inviting the public to help him create the piece's surface texture.

Festival organizer Paul Beyer notes, “As our City’s central civics arts space, McGuffey is the perfect place to launch the Tom Tom Founders Festival because of our focus on creativity and innovation.”

At the block party, Tom Tom organizers will publicly announce the festival's full month-long schedule of events, along with the festival's Artists- and Innovators-in-Residence. “It will be an entirely unique event, one that the City has never really seen.”

Local bands including Beleza Brazil, the Downbeat Project, the Olivarez Trio, and Chihamba, an African Drum circle, will be playing on the McGuffey's front steps between 5 and 8 p.m.

After 8 p.m., bands from a wide variety of genres, including bluegrass, punk, rock, spoken word, and jazz will be playing inside McGuffey. These bands include, Hot Twang!, the Eames Coleman Trio, the Invisible Hand, Borrowed Beams of Light, Dwight Howard Johnson, and DJ Kris Bowmaster. These acts will be performing back-to-back, in studios on all three floors of the building.

“These bands represent some of our finest and longest established local acts, as well as several of our up-and-comers who are touring the country and making a name for themselves,” Beyer says.

Tom Tom Founders Festival has three presenting sponsors. The Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau is sponsoring Tom Tom arts programming. New Belgium Brewing Company is the music presenting sponsor, and The Dreamfield Foundation is sponsoring the kickoff party and additional concert events.

For more information about Tom Tom, including the May 11-13 music festival weekend with more than 50 bands playing on the Downtown Mall, please visit, www.tomtom2012.com


CONTACT:

Paul Beyer, Director
Tom Tom Founders Festival
paul@tomtomfest.com
434.981.7045

March 20, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: festival, music

By Giles Morris
Issue #24.12 :: 03/20/2012

When last we spoke with Paul Beyer, founder of the Tom Tom Founders Festival, the local politico and salonniere laid out a vision for his event that sounded like SXSW meets a TED conference, and had people wondering how it could all materialize inside of two months.

Since then, Beyer’s hosted over a dozen public meetings in his apartment and communicated his idea to hundreds of people along the way. If last week’s announcement of the festival’s music lineup is an indication of what will happen between now and the kickoff gala at the McGuffey Art Center on April 13, there will be plenty of meat on the bone.

“I was serious about it being a community festival that built itself on community involvement and community input,” Beyer said. “Once people understood there was an open stage and an open invitation, they responded whole-heartedly.”

Solidifying the music lineup has to be seen as a feat on its own terms. Big national acts like Josh Ritter, The Walkmen, and Here We Go Magic are the headliners in a 30-plus band bill that has a distinct folk-indie-pop sensibility and doesn’t touch a single Red Light venue.
“Both Tom [Beals] and I think the Red Light connection would have been ideal,” Beyer said. “But in this abbreviated timeframe, it’s hard to get something like that to materialize. In future years, though, this is a conversation about how to get all the city’s assets on the same stage.”

Richmond promoter Tom Beals, the festival’s co-founder and booking agent for Groovin’ in the Garden at Maymont, burnt up his cell phone and exhausted some relationship capital to make it happen. Beals also relied the Hill & Wood frontman Sam Bush, who books shows at The Garage and Meade Hall, to negotiate the local landscape and plan acts.

“One of the reasons I was so drawn to doing this event is that people in Charlottesville are serious about their music and I hope this lineup speaks to that,” Beals said.

The details of the opening gala on April 13—which Beyer said will turn the McGuffey Art Center into a multi-level block party featuring live music, art demonstrations, and local food expos—aren’t yet solidified. What’s certain is that the party will be free and that it will reflect the idea of convergence of art, innovation, and music that Beyer communicated in the print flyer he released in February.

“People can expect an absolutely unique event at McGuffey that births this festival at our city’s community art space,” Beyer said.

The structure of the festival is also worth noting. Bookended by the gala and an outdoor celebration at the Ix space that will focus on community acts, the month in between will be full of smaller events planned and hosted by partner organizations—from little guys like Cville Bike Labs to big hitters like the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Pubic Policy at UVA.

“The impulse of this festival in the first year is to start networks across the community in lots of different fields. In innovation those networks have involved everyone from senior people at Darden and Batten to the Secretary of Commerce in the governor’s office,” Beyer said. “And we feel strongly that focusing on those networks and growing them are going to be the grounds for success in the future.”

You can’t have a festival without music, though, and the Friday and Saturday acts, hosted at the Southern, The Haven, Main Street Arena, and Meade Hall, are the event’s primary draw.

March 15, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: No tags where found.

Radio Talk Show Host, Coy Barefoot, of 1070 WINA News Radio, interviewed Paul Beyer about the Tom Tom Founders Festival.

March 13, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: music, festival

Charlottesville’s new and unique Music, Arts, and Innovation festival is proud to announce the acts who will be playing for the May 11th and 12th weekend. The lineup will include headlining artists Josh Ritter and The Walkmen and will be joined by more than 25 other national and regional artists. These artists will be playing in four venues on the downtown mall: The Southern Music Hall, The Haven, The Main Street Arena, and Christ Church.

“I'm amazed at how well this lineup has come together” says festival director, Paul Beyer. "The fact that these bands want to participate in an inagural idea, is a testament to the music culture that exists in Charlottesville.”

Concentrating on Indie-folk, Indie-rock and electronic genres, Tom Tom has pulled together bands form across the country. Josh Ritter is an established artist who’s Americana style and songwriting ability has gained him numerous accolades including being named by Paste Magazine as one of the “100 greatest living songwriters”. The Walkmen were at the forefront of the Indie Rock revolution in the early 2000’s. The album "Lisbon" was one of the critical darlings of 2010, and the band's live sound has steadily broadened.

Other acts announced on the TTFF lineup might not be as well known...yet. Here We Go Magic is a young indie rock band who’s single “Collector” was named “best new music” by Pitchfork Media in 2010, their new record "A Different Ship" will release three days before Tom Tom.

Folk scene stalwart Erin McKeown will be one of many Virginia natives joining TTFF’s music program. Born and Raised in Fredericksburg, Erin has toured the world for the last decade with artists like The Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, and Andrew Bird.

Tickets for the May 11 and 12 music events taking place at the four exclusive Tom Tom venues will go on-sale Tuesday May 21 at www.tomtom2012.com.

Tickets will be $50 and will gain the holder access to all of the four exclusive venues (Southern, Haven, Main Street Arena, Christ Church).

There is an exclusive pre-sale of tickets at www.tomtomfest.com/kickstarter. "We have spent considerable time outreaching to the community to crowd-source the programming throughout April 13 to May 13," Beyer says. "Now we are crowd-sourcing a portion of the funding."

Line up:

Josh Ritter
The Walkmen
Here We Go Magic
Those Darlins
Cotton Jones
Hospitality
Erin Mckeown
Autoerotique
American Royalty
Virtual Boy
Savoir Adore
The Spinto Band
Deleted Scenes
Paleface
Spirit Family Reunion
Hope for A goldensummer
Black Swans
Colin Killalea
The Hill and Wood
Midtown Dickens
Saunders Bohlke
DJ Williams Project
Small Sur
The Great Unknown
Nelly Anderson
Diane Cluck
Ken's Last Ever Extravaganza
Carl Anderson
Birdlips

Additional acts and venues will be announced soon.

March 08, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: music, festival


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tom Tom Founders Festival Launches From New Downtown Office


Charlottesville's new creative festival, the Tom Tom Founders Festival,
will celebrate original music, art and innovation for one month,
starting on Founders Day, April 13, Thomas Jefferson's birthday.

During the festival's "City As Canvas" month from April 13 to May 13,
residencies, talks, workshops, and performances for artists and
entrepreneurs will offer an open stage highlighting local innovation
and creativity throughout the community. Most of these events will be
free.

Tom Tom's activity culminates in the main festival weekend, May 11-13;
featuring performances from over 50 bands in venues along the Downtown
Mall; the unveiling of new sculpture, paintings, photography, murals
and interactive art by featured TTFF artists; and keynote presentations
that showcase Charlottesville as an innovation hub for the local food
movement, biotechnology, financial services and other start-up
technologies. Some events will be free. The headlining musical events
will be ticketed, and weekend passes will be sold.

"We have 25 bands from across the country, mostly buzz-bands in the
indie-pop, indie-folk, and electronic genres," said Paul Beyer, the
festival’s director. "They will be joined by more than 25 of our best
local bands who are excited to be part of this new festival."

The festival's line-up and headliners will be announced in the second
half of March, and tickets will go on sale then.

At the Tom Tom Founders Festival launch on Thursday, at the festival's
new headquarters on South 1st Street, Beyer will announce the
festival's three main music stages, and the two gala events – both free
– that will bookend the festival, on April 13 and May 13.

Early tickets and support opportunities will be available through a
Kickstarter initiative, with further details available Thursday. "We
crowd sourced the programming, basically letting the community
determine what happens during the festival, and now we will be
crowdsourcing some of the funding." http://www.kickstarter.com/

"Events are still being lined up and expanded, so we welcome everyone
to get involved and help. Contact us at [4]paul@tomtomfest.com or
through our website at www.tomtom2012.com."

Beyer will also introduce the festival's executive team, including:

Paul Beyer, Director
Paul is the Vice President of R.L. Beyer Custom Homes, a family
business in the Charlottesville and Albemarle region with 22 employees
and 40 years of history in the community. Paul oversees zoning, legal,
rental management, as well as marketing & promotion for the company. In
2010, Paul ran for a seat on Charlottesville’s City Council on a
platform of economic development and the arts, losing by 31 votes. Paul
graduated NYU with a degree in film, writing, & history, and since
returning to Charlottesville, has worked at expanding the creative
communities in his hometown.

Tom Beals, Production
Tom has been producing and promoting festivals and concerts for the
past 12 years. He currently produces the Groovin’ in the Garden concert
series at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, VA. Now in its
15th year, the series has boasted a lineup of numerous nationally
touring and Grammy-award-winning acts. Tom has worked on (and currently
works on) the production team for events such as the Lollapalooza Music
Festival, Austin City Limits, the 2008 Presidential Inauguration, 2010
Vancouver Winter Olympics, and the Super Bowl. He has a dog named
Coaltrain.

Beyer and Beals will be available for interviews.




Contact:
Paul Beyer, TTFF director
paul@tomtomfest.com
434.981.7045
www.tomtom2012.com

February 19, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: music, festival

By: Graham Moomaw
Published: February 19, 2012

Charlottesville already hosts festivals dedicated to books, films and photos, but is it ready to take center stage as the home of the next big music festival?

Paul Beyer is hoping to take an idea that emerged last year during his City Council campaign and make it a reality by putting on an event this spring that will showcase the city as a “creative hub for music, art and innovation.”

He’s calling it Tom Tom Founders Fest, a whimsical homage to the man who put Charlottesville on the map: Thomas Jefferson.

“All of the emphasis for this first year is about just showing that there’s a critical mass for a festival that has all these creative elements in motion at the same time,” said Beyer, a developer who finished a close fourth in the race for three Democratic council nominations last summer.

From May 11-13, Beyer hopes to transform the Downtown Mall area into a showcase for local entrepreneurship and art, but he says it’s the music that will stir the most excitement.

“The idea is that... there will be music at venues up and down the mall, galleries, restaurants, sanctuaries, clubs,” Beyer said. “The music is aimed to be 50/50: 50 percent local and then 50 percent indie-pop, indie-folk, electronic music... The theme is that these are buzz bands. They’re music you haven’t necessarily heard of yet. But they’re the next big thing.”

Beyer is tight-lipped about naming specific bands or venues, but he plans to release the details on March 13. He’s hoping a total of 50 bands will play the festival in the first year, and he said he’d be happy if it draws 1,500 people.

“We have music. The programming is well underway. We’re just nailing down the details,” Beyer said.

Attendees will have to buy tickets for the first two days of the festival, Beyer said. The final day will be free and open to the public, and feature musical acts of “local and national interest.”

Sam Bush, a local musician who manages the downtown music venue The Garage, is helping to book bands for Tom Tom.

“Charlottesville has such a thriving music and arts scene that I’m surprised a festival like this hasn’t come along sooner,” Bush said in an email. “Our city is full of creative people and one thing that Tom Tom will help do is bring them together and celebrate what they’re already doing. And having a festival like Tom Tom will be a great way for Charlottesville to reach out to the rest of the country and bring them in to share ideas, art and music.”

A kick-off event will be held on April 13, Founder’s Day, at a “downtown civic center,” Beyer said, which will serve as the starting point for a month of concerts and galleries leading up to the festival.

Beyer declined to put a price tag on the festival, but he said more details on financing would be revealed in the near future.

“Right now we’re in the process of garnering sponsorships,” Beyer said. “And we’re going to have some creative fundraising ideas for just how to really let the community take hold of this idea and say ‘Yeah, we want a music festival.’”

A former film and writing student at New York University, Beyer pushed the arts as an “economic engine” in the final days of his council campaign last summer. During the Democratic primary in August, the vote count was so close that Beyer requested a recount, but the tally eventually showed him trailing Dede Smith by 31 votes. Smith and the other two Democratic nominees went on to easy victories in the general election.

Beyer has hosted regular “Talk City” forums in his downtown apartment, prior to which he sends out the topic of discussion to an email list of 700-800 people. In one email, he asked what a music festival in Charlottesville would look like.

“I had all these people write back,” Beyer said. “…And I was like, well why don’t we just do it?”

Beyer said City Hall is aware of his plans, but he hasn’t asked for any official involvement at this point.

Asked for comment on Beyer’s festival idea, city spokesman Ric Barrick replied: “We wish him well with his new venture.”

Tom Tom posters should begin appearing around town en masse within weeks, Beyer said, but he said the door is still open for anyone who wants to get involved and propose their ideas.

“The whole point of this is that it’s a stage for Charlottesville’s creativity,” Beyer said. “But that means Charlottesville has to get on the stage.”

For more information, visit www.tomtom2012.com.

February 17, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: music, festival

By Lisa Provence

Last year, Paul Beyer ran for City Council. This year, he's starting a music/art festival modeled on Austin's South by Southwest.

With film, book and photo festivals already well-established, it's not like Charlottesville has a dearth of such events.

"I think it completes the circle," says Beyer. "This is music plus. It establishes Charlottesville as a creative center for music, art, and innovation." And, he points out, there's no Downtown Mall music festival.

With tongue-in-cheek homage to Thomas Jefferson, the event is called the Tom Tom Founders Festival, and has the obligatory quote from Jefferson: "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."

The three headliners and 50 bands in multiple venues will be announced in March. TTFF starts April 13– TJ's birthday– and culminates May 11-13. Promises Beyer, "It's a month of creativity."

February 01, 2012 | By: pbeyer | Tags: merchandise

Buy a Tom Tom T-shirt!

Premium tri-blend American Apparel fitted t-shirt. Added benefit, you will never get lost in a crowd. Does not include brews. But good-time guaranteed.
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