Festival weekend in Fairhope: the arts and crafts crowd, and the pop-ups chasing it
Each spring, Fairhope’s downtown streets fill with white tents, juried art displays and tens of thousands of visitors for the Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival — an event so large the town runs special parking and shuttles to move the more than 200,000 visitors expected across the festival days. The 74th edition ran three days, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, under the theme “Classic Fairhope in Black and White,” with hundreds of artists and artisans from across the country lining the downtown streets alongside food courts and street vendors.
But the festival weekend has grown beyond the festival itself. Down Scenic 98 in Point Clear, two pop-up events rode the crowds, turning the weekend into a self-guided tour of the Eastern Shore’s artist-run shops.
A collection inspired by Point Clear
At Chapel Farms Collection, local painter, potter and creative all-rounder America Tickle unveiled her newest design line, the Point Clear Collection — a curated set of goods for entertaining and everyday life along the bay. The range runs from crystal barware suited to a polo field to YETI essentials built for the boat and the wharf, with apparel that moves from the golf course to a fishing tournament and back to dinner at the club: classic comfort tees, performance fishing shirts and refined polos from brands like Tasc and Peter Millar.
The festival pop-up was one of three tent shows Tickle hosted around the collection, with plans in the works for a permanent storefront in the Point Clear area. Her work — the sense of style and place along the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay — can be followed on Instagram at @pointclearcollection or on Facebook at Point Clear Collection.
Chapel Farm itself, a gift shop known for curated jewelry, art and home goods from local artisans, has been in business since 2013 under the banner of “goods for giving and gracious living,” with in-store and online shopping across home decor, accessories, baby items and seasonal collections.
Down the road at The Garage Studio
A bit further down Scenic 98, past the Grand Hotel, painter Linda Hargett set up at The Garage Studio, the eclectic shop run by Amanda Bacon. Hargett’s featured work, “Where the Pines Meet the Palms,” is a collection of whimsical dreamscapes — loose acrylic flora and fauna in bright colors that capture the waterfront, bogs and wooded fields of the coastal landscape. She hosted visitors from noon to 5 p.m. on the festival’s Friday and Saturday, with more of her work on Instagram at LindaHargettArt.
The Garage Studio describes itself as part magic, part mayhem — a boutique of curated gifts, original art and stylish clothing, each piece selected to inspire an artful life. Between the festival’s 200,000 visitors and the pop-ups along the highway, the weekend has become a showcase not just for juried art but for the working artists and small shops that give the Eastern Shore its character year-round.
For fairgoers, the formula is simple: park once, ride the shuttle, walk the tents downtown, then take the scenic route home — with a stop or two in Point Clear.