The One Part of Alys Beach Crafted That Never Needed a Ticket

On Sunday, November 15, the Alys Beach Amphitheatre opens at 10 a.m. Regional artisans will be selling holiday gifts, Ken & Andi will be playing, and Santa photos start at noon. It's free, open to the public and open to all ages. That Sunday market is all that's left of Alys Beach Crafted that day. The rum dinners, firkins and spirits tastings will have wrapped up by then.

Crafted runs November 11 through 15 this year, with all proceeds going to the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County. Alys Beach says the festival grew out of Firkin Fête, which debuted in 2019. Most of what made Crafted's name is ticketed and limited to adults. The free Holiday Makers Market gets the most hours on the schedule, runs three days in a row and is the only event on Sunday. If you live in Alys Beach or nearby, that free market is the festival you can actually plan a weekend around.

Sunday Belongs Entirely to the Market

Here's the full 2026 week from the official Crafted schedule, with admission and age rules from each event's page.

Add up the three market sessions and you get 10.5 hours. Firkin Fête, the event the whole festival grew out of, runs two and a half hours. Spirited Soirée runs three. So the free market is open longer than the two big ticketed parties put together, and it's the only event on the schedule more than once.

Where the Tickets Went

Alys Beach homeowners get the first chance at Crafted tickets. According to the Crafted FAQ, homeowner sales opened August 17, 2026, and public sales opened September 1. The FAQ says tickets are sold online, though some may be available at the door if any are left. Every ticketed event on this year's schedule is 21+.

The schedule already lists Cocktails & Clay as sold out. That's Sarah Bumanglag's Friday afternoon workshop, where guests make two clay vessels with light bites and a cocktail. As of late October, the other ticketed events are still listed on the ticketing page, which opens the 2026 listing even though the link still says 2025.

Even with a ticket, the 21+ rule means families with kids can't go to most of the week together. The market is the exception. The FAQ says strollers aren't allowed at ticketed events but are welcome at the Amphitheatre market.

Three of the Eleven Makers Are From 30A

The market's participant directory lists 11 makers. Three of them are based on or near 30A, and one is from Alys Beach itself. Their crafts below come from the SoWal market listing and the makers' own sites.

From Alys Beach, Watersound and Santa Rosa Beach

• Honest Emma, Julie Stewart, Alys Beach: custom embroidery on napkins, apparel, purses, stockings and pillows.
• Beach Babe Collection, Cortney Gough, Watersound: hats, hair accessories and new jewelry.
• Rooted by Ramsay, Ramsay Johnson, Santa Rosa Beach: hand block-printed apparel and table linens, plus handmade necklaces.

From elsewhere on the Gulf Coast and across the Southeast

• Drift - Jen G, Jen Grove, Pensacola Beach: encaustic paintings, fine-art prints, scarves and gold-filled gemstone jewelry.
• Amber DeCicco Fine Artist, Niceville: watercolor and acrylic paintings and cyanotype work.
• Christina Brockman Fine Art, Birmingham: original acrylic and mixed-media art.
• Garden District Soapery, Bridgette Guillory, Alexandria, Louisiana: artisan milk soaps, botanical perfumes and hand-poured soy candles.
• Olive Branch Candle Co., Julie Bisping, Knoxville: wood-wick candles in jars and dough bowls, plus gift sets.
• Pavilion Paper, Mallory Killingstad, Dallas: decorative paper plates, placemats, and cocktail and dinner napkins.
• Collected for the Home, Deke Rogers, Irondale, Alabama: home goods and home accessories.

The farthest-traveled maker is Daniella Roper, founder of Jet Lagged Matchmaker, who's coming from Lisbon, Portugal. She makes small-batch collectible matchboxes inspired by travel, architecture, interiors and color.

The lineup leans toward things that get used at a holiday table or wrapped as gifts: embroidered napkins, paper placemats, dough-bowl candles and block-printed linens. That fits how the Crafted event page describes the market, as a place to pick up "gifts for the holiday season, or as meaningful pieces for their own collections."

Each Day Has Its Own Music and Extras

The three market sessions aren't the same. Each day has a different performer, and Santa only comes on the weekend.

1. Friday, 2 to 4:30 p.m. Corey Hall plays. Earlier this fall he was also part of the Tuesday Wine + Song series at NEAT, so some neighbors may already know his sets.
2. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nick Yarborough plays, and Santa photos run noon to 2 p.m.
3. Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Ken & Andi play, and Santa photos run noon to 2 p.m. again.

All three days have a Crafted merchandise booth and a Cultural Arts Alliance booth. On the market's event page, organizers invite visitors to stop by and "make time create something special with them." That booth is the hands-on part of the market.

The event page says treats and drinks can be bought from the Town Center merchants around the Amphitheatre. Those kitchens have been back for weeks. George's at Alys Beach reopened October 11 and Fonville Press on October 12, after Hurricane Isaias passed through the area.

The Ticketed Week Around It

Even if you skip every ticketed event, the evening ones will be going on a few blocks from the Amphitheatre, and it helps to know what they are.

On Thursday, three dinners all start at 5 p.m. At Red Loggia at Caliza, Foursquare Rum Distillery pairs with Chef Rob McDaniel. Bayonet's official biography lists him as owner and executive chef of Bayonet, a Birmingham raw bar he runs with his wife Emily, and says the two opened Helen in Birmingham in 2020. At George's, Brown-Forman pairs with Chef Camille Withall and mixologist Nicole Greenwell. At The Summerhouse at the Silva, Menagerie Wines and Chef Drew Dzejak host a dinner set among David Yarrow's photography.

Wednesday's 30A Songwriters Session features Shawn Mullins. At Firkin Fête on Friday night, Scott T. Smith plays in Central Park. The participant directory lists brewery representatives from Watercraft Brewing & Distilling, NoFo Brew Co., Grayton Beer Company and Perfect Plain Brewing Co. Saturday's Spirited Soirée along the North Sea Garden Walk overlaps the market's last hour. Nathan Worthey and Dion Jones play, and the participant directory lists St. Augustine Distillery, Foursquare Rum, Distillery 98, Hayman's Family Distillery and St. George Spirits.

That Saturday overlap is the busiest stretch of the weekend. From 1 to 2 p.m., the market and the Soirée are both going in Town Center, and Santa photos are underway too.

Getting There From Down the Street

The Crafted FAQ covers the practical details.

• Parking: On site. The best spot is the Amphitheatre lot at 30A and Somerset Street, with signs pointing to overflow parking.
• Footwear: Flat shoes are recommended because there's a lot of walking on cobblestone paths and lawns.
• Bags: Purses and bags are allowed and checked at entry. Outside alcohol and chairs aren't allowed.
• Strollers: Welcome at the Amphitheatre market.
• Weather: The market runs rain or shine. The FAQ says an event would only be called off for extreme weather such as high winds or a hurricane.

If you live in Alys Beach, the Amphitheatre is in Town Center, so the market's Friday 2 p.m. start and Sunday's 10 a.m. opening are both easy to fit into an ordinary weekend.

If Crafted weekend has you thinking about what owning on 30A looks like year-round, from the November market to a summer evening at Caliza, Kromer Collective is glad to share what we know about how each Alys Beach season actually feels.