Alys Beach Crafted Holiday Makers Market 2026: Choose Your Market Day

Starting Wednesday, November 11, Alys Beach Town Center hosts five days of chefs, distillers, brewers and makers for Alys Beach Crafted. The festival runs through November 15, and its proceeds benefit the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County. Most of the schedule is evening events that need tickets and are limited to guests 21 and older. The part a neighbor can walk into with no ticket is the Holiday Makers Market in the Town Center Amphitheatre. It runs on three days, and each one is set up a little differently.

The market is free, open to the public and open to all ages, and it goes on rain or shine. Picking a day comes down to the hours, the music and whether you want Santa photos.

The Ticketed Evenings Fill the Rest of the Week

Crafted grew out of Firkin Fête, which first ran in Alys Beach in 2019. Alys Beach describes the festival as a gathering of "renowned craftspeople from around the country." In 2026, the ticketed events are:

1. Songwriter Round Table Session, Wednesday, November 11, at 5:30 p.m. in the Red Loggia at Caliza. The official event page names Shawn Mullins as the performer. The event is a nod to the Cultural Arts Alliance's 30A Songwriters Festival.
2. Three Experiential Dinners, all on Thursday, November 12, at 5 p.m.:
   • Birmingham chef Rob McDaniel of Helen and Bayonet cooks a family-style dinner paired with Foursquare Rum Distillery in the Red Loggia at Caliza.
   • Chef Camille Withall cooks with Brown-Forman spirits at George's at Alys Beach.
   • Chef Drew Dzejak and Alys Beach Culinary host a dinner with Menagerie Wines and photographer David Yarrow at The Summerhouse at the Silva.
3. Cocktails & Clay with local ceramicist Sarah Bumanglag, Friday afternoon, November 13, at The Summerhouse at the Silva.
4. Firkin Fête, Friday, November 13, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Central Park. This is the event's sixth year. Breweries tap 11-gallon firkins, and the event page notes that not even the brewers know how the beer will taste until it is poured. Scott T. Smith plays, and all food and drink are included.
5. Spirited Soirée, Saturday, November 14, from 1 to 4 p.m. on the North Sea Garden Walk. The pedestrian entrance is on the north side of 30A along West La Garza Lane, between the Alys Beach Sales Center and Fonville Press.

The festival's 2026 ticket sales run through the Alys Beach Crafted 2026 listing on BigTickets, and its schedule covers the songwriter session, the dinners, Firkin Fête and Spirited Soirée. Ticket holders should know that tickets are non-refundable and can't be transferred between events.

These events are the reason Crafted fills the calendar, but they're mostly evenings and adult-only. The market fills the daytime around them, and it's the one part of the festival open to every age.

Three Market Days, Three Different Afternoons

All three market days use the same space and the same idea. Makers chosen by the festival sell their work in the Amphitheatre and talk about how they make it. Food and drinks come from the Town Center merchants nearby. The festival pages don't name the makers ahead of time. Beyond that, the days differ:

Friday is the shortest day at two and a half hours, and it's the only day without Santa. The Friday market page says Santa photos are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. Friday also has the latest hours of the three days. The market wraps up at 4:30 p.m., two hours before Firkin Fête opens in Central Park.

Saturday and Sunday both run four hours, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Santa takes the second half of each day. Families who want a photo should plan to arrive at noon or later. Before noon, the market is shopping and live music. The music is the main difference between the two weekend days. Nick Yarborough plays all four hours on Saturday, and Ken & Andi play all four on Sunday.

Saturday's market also overlaps the start of Spirited Soirée, which begins at 1 p.m. on the North Sea Garden Walk. Of all the market hours, Saturday afternoon is when the most is happening in Town Center at the same time. Sunday has no ticketed event on the schedule, so it's the quietest of the three days.

The Cultural Arts Alliance has a booth at the market every day, next to the Crafted merchandise booth. The festival's pages invite guests to stop there and make something with the Alliance team. Families who arrive before noon on the weekend can start there and then go to Santa.

One planning note for dog owners. The market pages' info tables say "all ages, and dogs, welcome," but a festival-wide notice on the same pages says no pets are allowed and only service animals are permitted. Leaving the dog at home avoids the question at the gate.

Lunch and Coffee Around the Amphitheatre

The market doesn't run its own food vendors. The festival points guests to the Town Center merchants, so the shops around the Amphitheatre's edges are part of the market day.

According to the Alys Beach merchant directory, Fonville Press Market & Café opens daily at 7 a.m. and stays open until 8 p.m., so it's open through all three market days. George's serves lunch daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., which fits inside both weekend markets. NEAT Bottle Shop opens at 10 a.m., the same time as the Saturday and Sunday markets, and stays open until 7 p.m. These are the regular hours the directory lists. Merchants may adjust them for a festival weekend, so call ahead if timing matters.

New Town Center Storefronts for Holiday Shopping

A market built around holiday gifts this year shares Town Center with a few new tenants. SoWal reported on October 7 that Indaco, an Italian restaurant from the Indigo Road Hospitality Group, began welcoming guests in July 2026. Its menu includes wood-fired pizzas, handmade pastas and seafood. Indaco joins O-Ku, the group's other Alys Beach restaurant, which opened in 2024.

The same SoWal report covered two retail additions:

• Rowan, a California-based menswear brand opening its first location outside that state. SoWal said it was expected to open in October 2026. The Alys Beach merchant directory lists it at 11 North Castle Harbour Drive, Unit 6–7, and still marked it "Opening Fall 2026" at last update.
• KREWE, the New Orleans eyewear brand. It has sold in Alys Beach for years through the Alys Shoppe and its Tiny House retail model, and it is expanding into its first Florida brick-and-mortar store "this fall." The new store adds optical frames, lens cutting and other services.

Neither retail opening had been confirmed at the time of the latest reports, so check before planning a stop around either one during the market.

After Crafted, the Calendar Moves to Thanksgiving Week

Once the market closes on November 15, Alys Beach's next big dates come at the end of the month. The Alys Beach November calendar lists the Thanksgiving Day 30A 10K on November 26. Highway 30A is closed to traffic from 7 to 10:30 a.m. that morning. Anyone hosting family that week should plan around those morning hours.

The next evening, November 27, Alys in Winter Wonderland runs from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Amphitheatre, the same space the Makers Market uses. The evening includes a holiday concert and family activities, and Santa lights the tree at 6:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public, though the event page notes that details may change.

Four days later, Caliza's restaurant service closes for the season. The Caliza page lists the closure from December 1 through March 1. Caliza's Red Loggia hosts two of Crafted's ticketed events, the Songwriter Round Table and the Foursquare Rum dinner, so those are among the last scheduled evenings there before the winter break.

In December, the Alys Beach calendar lists Alys Classics, a movie-and-picnic night at The Silva, on December 29 from 6 to 9 p.m., with more details still to come. On December 31, the free Noon Year's Eve Party runs from 10 a.m. to noon, with music, crafts, face painting, an inflatable snow globe and a bar by Fonville Press.

For the market itself, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Sunday morning each offer something different. Choose the one that fits your holiday list and your Santa photo plans.

We keep up with the 30A calendar because it's part of knowing these towns well. If you're thinking about a home in Alys Beach or anywhere along the corridor, 30AMY HOMES can walk you through how the seasons shape daily life in each town. Schedule a Personal Consultation.