As the rain fell on Downtown Gainesville, vendors unfurled the sides of their tents, protecting their goods, while visitors opened umbrellas or clustered together under the awnings lining Southwest 2nd Street. Shane McNutt got his massage chairs ready.
Situated at the entrance of a parking garage next to How Bazar, the 33-year-old and his team of local massage therapists set up portable massage chairs behind a whiteboard reading “FREE MASSAGES.” They wore badges labelling them as vendors at Big: Culture & Arts Festival, which took place April 11 and 12 in Downtown Gainesville. The opening block party welcomed food and clothing vendors, as well as musicians and artists.
McNutt has worked the past two Big events in 2022 and 2023 and serves as the massage coordinator. He said he values the diversity of the Gainesville massage community and sees Big as a way to give back.
“This is not an opportunity to come and make a bunch of money,” he said. “This is an opportunity to come and maybe give people their very first massage ever in their lives. That's super meaningful to people.”
For Big’s organizers, the whole event is put together with the hope of giving back. Twenty-seven-year-old Jahi Khalfani grew up in Gainesville and attended UF. He and the festival’s co-organizer, Laila Fakhoury, have worked together since 2018 as the founders of Dion Dia, a record label based out of How Bazar in Downtown Gainesville.
Since the founding of Dion Dia, they knew they wanted to host a music festival as a form of promotion for the local artists they represent. During his time at UF, Khalfani saw the popularity of punk rock and house shows in Gainesville, as well as the growing appeal of hip-hop and R&B music. He watched as organizers and producers cycled in and out of Gainesville.
Circus performers twirl batons, spin fire and hang from hoops at the Big: Culture and Arts Festival in Gainesville, Fla., on Saturday, April 12, 2025.
“It's a difficult thing,” he said. “A lot of people — great people — leave Gainesville in search of better opportunities.”
It was because of this cycle that he and Fakhoury decided to found Dion Dia in hopes of creating a permanent place for musicians to build their brand. They see their record label and the festival as extensions of Gainesville’s “infrastructure.”
In 2022, they organized the event under the name “BIG Sho,’” which Fakhoury organized down to the minute. She described it as being like a play, with various elements working together. The next year, she stepped back from the specifics and experimented with a more relaxed format, but she discovered audiences enjoyed the detailed, theatrical planning of the 2022 show.
Fakhoury emphasized the importance of bringing together various art forms through the festival. Both she and Khalfani view Big as an opportunity to bring Gainesville creatives together to cultivate future partnerships.
“It's something that could lead to friendships and relationships way past the festival, because it's really not just about the one day,” Fakhoury said. “It's about the lasting impact that it can have for someone and for the community.”
For artists like 21-year-old UF art sophomore Kayla Rukab, the community goes beyond Gainesville. As a Palestinian-American artist, Rukab collaborates with How Bazar frequently, because she seeks to promote Palestinian-owned businesses.
Rukab only started vending recently after displaying her work at one of How Bazar’s “Bazar A La Carte” night markets. She enjoys working with Fakhoury and How Bazar because of the emphasis they place on diversity and inclusivity.
“It has really strong core principles as, I don’t even want to say a business,” Rukab said. “They’re kind of just a space in Gainesville.”
Alongside Rukab’s paintings, a personalized poetry stand and a belly chain vendor, Magdelina Dylla made fresh slices of baklava from inside her tent representing her parents’ company, Custom Caterers.
Her family has been based in Gainesville since they moved from Greece and Lebanon, and her parents met working in a local restaurant. Dylla has been a lifelong member of the Gainesville community and met Fakhoury through the Greater Gainesville Immigrant Community, where she has catered events in the past.
She thinks of the fusion of different art forms and passions as a reflection of the city she has been a part of for so long.
“It works really well, especially for Gainesville —such an eclectic, diverse crowd,” she said.
Contact Juliana DeFilippo at jdefillipo@alligator.org. Follow her on X @JulianaDeF58101
Juliana DeFilippo is a first-year journalism major and general assignment Avenue reporter. In her free time, she loves to read and work on crossword puzzles.
