Nick Dee and Jake Elder are bringing the beat of Nashville to the consumer with their company Anything and Everything Events.
Diversity in the music scene is a familiar concept for Nashville natives. When it comes to festivals, each one usually addresses a niche: whether it be country, pop, folk or rap. Anything and Everything Events hopes to build on musical diversity in individual event spaces.
“It was called Anything Fest because we wanted a little bit of everything,” said Dee. “We had rap, R&B, rock, pop, indie, EDM. It made people branch out, even if they were just coming for the rock, or whatever, they got to see a little bit of everything.”
Hosted at Further Farms on Sept. 17, Anything Fest was the promotion company’s first festival produced by Dee and Elder along with cofounders Carson Jackson and Levi Patton.
Dee, a junior in the Music Business program, started the company after facing serious medical issues. Diagnosed with Hypereosinophilic syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that attacks internal organs, he went into both respiratory and heart failure early last year.
“I got blessed enough to recover, even though I wasn’t supposed to,” said Dee. “I had a 5% chance of living, and even if I lived, they said I wasn’t going to get better…almost everybody on the cardiogenic ICU floor died except for me.”
It was this experience that prompted Dee to found Anything and Everything Events. Following his passion for bringing music to others, he wanted to create a special event, one that people would remember.
“We thought there were a lot of festivals coming through Nashville that weren’t really in the Nashville scene,” said Dee. “They were corporate companies from Vegas and Los Angeles trying to capitalize on the market here, but they weren’t actively a part of Nashville. That’s kind of why we decided to do it. We wanted something that we would want to go to, an event that we would pay to go to.”
Working to create a community aspect in their project, the business decided to incorporate many of their Belmont contacts into their event.
“A lot of the talent on our roster, and a lot of the people involved from production to video to photo, were all involved with Belmont in some shape or form, whether students currently or alumni,” Elder said.
He also said this aspect of the event created big opportunities for himself, as well as the artists who played, saying “everyone is just getting a really valuable experience.”
Working on Anything Fest opened new opportunities for Dee in the realm of music business. Now working as a booking agent for a headliner, multi-platform recording artist, he hopes to continue exploring what the Nashville music scene has to offer.
Dee and Elder encourage other young entrepreneurs to explore their unique passions and work hard for what they want, while keeping a positive mindset.
“Find your own niche. Find something that you would go to, that you would do, a product or service that you would buy if it was available,” Dee said.
“And you’re not going to be alone in that. If you think there’s a niche for something you want to do, I’m sure there’s other people that feel the same way and would love that.”
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This article was written by Katie-Beth Cannon