Culture
The Nelsonville Music Festival celebrates 20 years: A Q&A with Tim Peacock and Devin Sudman
By: Emily Votaw
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NELSONVILLE, Ohio (WOUB) – When the first Nelsonville Music Festival took place in 2005, its goals were simple: raise money for the nonprofit arts organization Stuart’s Opera House and put on a successful community event centered on live music. Twenty editions later, those goals remain central, even as the festival’s scale has grown far beyond what anyone could have imagined in those early years.
Now one of the most respected independent music festivals in the country, the Nelsonville Music Festival (NMF) draws thousands of people to the Snow Fork Event Center each year for what Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the Flaming Lips, once described with great affection as “a weird party in the woods.”
The 2026 festival happens June 18 – 20 and features performances by artists ranging from Americana mainstays Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to critically adored art-rock group Geese to the one and only “Queen of Bounce” Big Freedia, plus dozens of other artists across four stages.
Though the lineup is, of course, a big reason so many people flock to NMF each year, the festival is first and foremost a fundraiser for Stuart’s Opera House and its year-round mission, which includes tuition-free arts education for the region.
To get a full perspective as we head toward the 20th NMF, I spoke with two people at the heart of it: Tim Peacock and Devin Sudman. Tim Peacock founded NMF in 2005 while serving as Executive Director of Stuart’s, and he now serves as Artistic Director for both NMF and Stuart’s. Devin Sudman steps into his first festival this year as Stuart’s Opera House Executive Director.
We talked about the festival’s 20-year arc, why accessibility in the arts matters in rural Ohio, the emotional weight people attach to this weekend, and what keeps both of them coming back through the burnout.
Find a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below. Listen to our conversation by clicking “play” in the SoundCloud embed above.
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Emily Votaw: Tim, you founded the festival in 2005. What did you think you were building then, compared to what it actually became?
Tim Peacock: I still have a hard time thinking about next week, let alone 22 years ago. When we started the Nelsonville Music Festival, yes, I was the founder, because I was the executive director of the organization at the time. But the entire time, all these years, it’s only happened with tons of help from tons of people. When we started it, we knew it was a fundraiser for Stuart’s Opera House’s year-round mission work, which it still is. And the truth is, other than that, I don’t think we were thinking about the following year, or at least I wasn’t. There wasn’t a business plan for the next five years.
I’m a little embarrassed to say it, but looking back, it’s amazing to me that it succeeded and survived this long, especially in those first years. We were learning. We’d never run a music festival before. We started, learned from each year, got better, and that still happens. So yeah, it’s been 22 years, because of the pandemic, but this is our 20th edition of the festival this year. It is a work in progress, hopefully getting better each time. “Better” doesn’t necessarily mean bigger artists or giant stars performing, either. It’s a lot more nuanced than that and much more about the festival’s community-oriented nature, which is the aspect that hopefully continues to improve.
Emily Votaw: Devin, it’s your first NMF as the Executive Director of Stuart’s. I know personally how deeply involved you’ve been with the festival for years. So what does it feel like going in as executive director this time?
Devin Sudman: Well, there’s a fine line between “excited” and “scared”. I’m super excited because I get to be even more involved in this incredible community project. So much of my work in the past 10 years in Athens has been in grassroots community collaboration, and this is the biggest example of that in our community. As Executive Director of Stuart’s, I believe it’s my job to give all the workers every tool they need to do their jobs really well and to remove barriers. That’s what I think I’m doing with the festival so far this year. I’m trying to see where my talents and skills can be of service.
As I said, it’s a fine line between “excited” and “scared”, but “excited” is currently winning, even though we’re 20-some days away from the festival. Working at Stuart’s and getting to participate in this has been wonderful. Now, I also get to put my business hat on and figure out how this can be sustainable, how it can last for 20 more years, and how we’re going to continue to fund it. Which, to me, is the exciting part.
Emily Votaw: I know the festival directly supports Stuart’s tuition-free arts education programming. Why exactly is tuition-free arts education so important, specifically in our community?
Devin Sudman: Oh boy. Well, if you haven’t picked up on things, Emily, the world’s really scary out there right now. We’re in the middle of strategic planning for our organization, and I genuinely believe that joy is a value. We at Stuart’s need to not only help facilitate joy but also find joy for ourselves in the work we’re doing.
We’ve essentially removed all financial barriers for our arts education programs. If you can pay, of course, we’ll gratefully accept your support, but if you can’t, we don’t want that to impact your ability to participate. Access is incredibly important. For many, we are the access point to the arts and arts education, so it’s incredibly important to me that we ensure everyone, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, or heritage, has a place at Stuart’s Opera House. And NMF gets to show all of that in three days, which is exciting.
Emily Votaw: Speaking specifically of accessibility, what does it change, especially for a young person, when the barrier to participation in the arts is removed? Why is that so valuable?
Devin Sudman: It allows us to be radically creative and imaginative. And if we’re allowed to live in that, not only as children and teenagers but also as adults, we really can change the world. So if we’re starting at kindergarten and preschool, giving them access to the arts and showing how powerful that key can be in the world, we’re giving them permission to just live their lives and be unapologetic about it.
I’ve watched a student get their first pair of tap shoes who’s now touring on a national Broadway production, all because of the art that we create in Southeastern Ohio. It’s moments like that. That’s just mind-blowing to me. But it shouldn’t be. We have all of that talent here. We can put people and artists on these national stages if they want. Stuart’s is used as an example across the state of how and why we should respond to the community.
Emily Votaw: Tim, last month you posted a short essay on Stuart’s Opera House’s website reflecting on 20 years of the festival. In that essay, you hinted at how emotionally important the festival is to people. You mentioned that one person in particular had noted their first festival experience helped them pull out of a dark emotional place. So I’m curious, for both of you, how often do you hear those kinds of stories from people, and what does it feel like when you hear them?
Tim Peacock: Well, in 2022, we had to relocate the festival to the Snow Fork Event Center. With that move came a lot of work to be done, not just during the festival, but also in getting the site ready and working with our hands on the ground. Even though I’d known, worked with, and been friends with volunteers throughout the whole 20 years, the transition to the new venue meant I had to be out there working a lot. We’d do site prep days, and I became much closer to many volunteers who would come and work for six or eight hours a day on many weekends and after work. If you’re working side by side with someone clearing brush for three hours, there’s a lot of talking and story sharing.
During that time, I came to appreciate even more how important the Nelsonville Music Festival is to people. I’m not saying we’re uniquely different. A community festival in any small town, especially where there isn’t an abundance of such opportunities, can help us connect with things we otherwise wouldn’t. It’s hard for me to explain that feeling. But a music festival, especially one like the Nelsonville Music Festival, isn’t just about entertainment. It is a community thing, and it really is about the arts in general. It just allows us to feel things and process things that are difficult to do in the day-to-day; things that are difficult to process when you’re at work or when you’re trying to make dinner for your family.
I think I wrote in that essay, “has an arts event or a music event ever made you cry? Or has it ever given you goosebumps?” I don’t drive down the road and get goosebumps because a beautiful car drives by. I don’t think I ever have. That’s the part of this that still moves me.
Devin Sudman: Tim, so much of what you’re saying, especially from the emotional lens, I definitely resonate with. In my five years, it feels like every year becomes more and more of a family reunion. These people Tim has been working alongside for five, 10, 15-plus years have become friends, not only to Tim, but to myself and the other people who work at Stuart’s. For some, NMF is the only time we see each other in person that year. It’s about those human connections that I believe we so desperately need right now, not only because of the state of the world, but also following the pandemic. We just lost so much humanity, and it’s things like NMF that bring that center of gravity back to me.
Emily Votaw: For both of you, what are the reasons you keep coming back? Why do you find yourself able to overcome that burnout each year?
Tim Peacock: [laughs] You might have to ask my therapist, I’m not sure. The thing I can point to is essentially what I just said. The people. I’m sure there’s a bit of, well, one of my co-workers has called me an “adrenaline junkie”, which I never thought I was, but there must be something to it, because when the festival’s happening, from like two weeks before and through the very last car leaving the festival site, you are peaking on adrenaline or dopamine or whatever that is. And then when the last car leaves, you crash hard from that extended adrenaline rush. I don’t know if that’s physiologically accurate. It’s just how it feels.
But yeah, I’m sure part of that plays into this. The overwhelming part, though, is that if the festival is successful, it raises money for an organization I love, and we do good work with it. That money’s never guaranteed, right? It’s a struggle every year. That’s part of the scary part Devin was referring to. You never know.
And there’s a lot of risk bringing 5,000 people out into the open field for a weekend, with two-thirds of them camping. All of those things are risks we take, but we prepare for them as much as possible for people’s safety. Those are concerns that weigh in on the scary part. But the outcome has been worth it.
Devin Sudman: I think my answer is simple. It just matters. NMF matters so much to us who help produce it and to those who come and participate. We all know the stigma and the stories attached to rural areas of the country, let alone rural Ohio. And the fact that we can do this big festival with the resources we have is incredible. That in itself is a powerful story. The fact that we bring together international, local, and teaching artists, as well as vendors, is a big deal. And it matters that we can all come together and showcase art and talent and see it on our stage. It’s just profound what Tim and his team have created to get us to this point, and ultimately, where we’re going to take it. It just matters.
Emily Votaw: Accessibility and equity in the arts are very important to Stuart’s. So how do those values show up in practical, concrete ways at the Nelsonville Music Festival?
Devin Sudman: First, at Stuart’s, we really do try our best to activate those in marginalized communities, and that’s no different from what we’re doing at NMF. I know we’ve had conversations about that backstage as well. Many backstage technicians are male-presenting, and we know there’s a large demographic of female-presenting technicians as well, so we’re working on that.
Accessibility and equity are our values, but for others, they’re fighting words, which creates tension not only in how we might find funding, but also in how we can talk about the work we’re doing. So that’s been a delicate area recently. But ultimately, as you said, Emily, they’re Stuart’s values. So we’re going to stick to our values and continue to do our work.
That may mean that, in some years, you’ll see Stuart’s doing, for example, what we did in 2024, when we were leading anti-racism conversations. I’d say in recent years, we’ve really been thinking about the admin and the strategic side of things. Some years we’re going to do well, some years we’re not. But I think the accountability piece is the important part. At least we’re trying something. At least we’re trying to move the needle in a more positive direction amid all this chaos. We’re not perfect, but we’re doing better.
Tim Peacock: Yeah, I think Devin hit it on the head. I don’t know that I was always as intentional as I try to be now, but I do know I’ve always liked all kinds of music and art, and I didn’t care who created them. I didn’t even think about this person being this, or being from here, or whatever that might be, which is a little naive in hindsight. But I believe we’ve always had a pretty good, diverse representation of artists who have performed over the years.
As Devin said, there have probably been some years when it wasn’t as much, but for the most part, the intention has always been there, even before I realized it was an intention. And now it’s definitely at the forefront of my mind when it comes to curating the festival and shows at Stuart’s Opera House.
Devin Sudman: Yeah, representation really does matter. I am a person of color. I think I’ve had two Black teachers in my entire existence, and I have a Master’s degree. And then I think about how many artists I’ve seen that look like me on the stage. It really wasn’t until I came to Southeastern Ohio and started paying attention to Stuart’s that I saw artists who look like me on stage.
That’s important. I remember being on a third-grade field trip to Severance Hall in downtown Cleveland when I saw a Black person playing the cello and went, “Whoa, we can do that?” That really set me on the path to becoming an artist and an administrator.
So again, that matters. And the fact that we have people like Tim, who is not alone, who is part of a network of other artistic directors intentionally doing this work, when we all think collectively and point in that direction, that’s when we can make a real, significant change. The work we’re doing is making a change in our community, and hopefully it’s setting an example for others as well.
Emily Votaw: Is there anything either of you would like to say about the festival this year that perhaps didn’t come up in our conversation?
Tim Peacock: I just want to say thank you to WOUB, which has been involved for so many years, helping to produce really killer content on our Creekside stage and, previously, our Gladden House stage. And thank you to this community at large, who get what we do, like what we do, and support what we do, because we couldn’t do it without that. If Devin and I were the only ones who cared about such things, then we wouldn’t have a 5,000-person festival. So I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful because it also employs me. If you’re coming this year, it may be the first time NMF sells out in 20 years, so please carpool to fit as many people on-site as possible.