Southern Hospitality Abounds at Arts & Crafts Festival

Each year following the Arts & Crafts Festival in Fairhope, artists and craftsmen are surveyed to determine their opinions of how well the event was organized and to acquire suggestions for future events. Each year they all say the same thing about the town's folk - they like the down home southern hospitality.

One of the favored services the participants rave about following the three-day event is the Festival Ambassadors. The young people are members of the Girls Service Club, Key Club and ROTC from Fairhope and Daphne High School, as well as Bayside Academy.

Well over a hundred students signed up to volunteer last year to comb the streets, and visit each and every artist or craftsman to lend a hand. Some helped man a booth while the participants ran errands ate lunch, or just needed a break. Some of the ambassadors served coffee, water or soft drinks, as well as pastries and fruit. Others were asked to stand in the long lines to purchase a participant's lunch for them, and many of the students even helped set up and tear down booths.

Another hospitable act that gives the festival a unique touch is the "Adopt-an-Artist" program. Members of the Downtown Business Association will adopt one or more artists setting up near their business and invite them to "make themselves at home." Artists are made to feel welcome to drop by and utilize the phone, restroom, have a cup of coffee or simply visit. Local students created their own artwork, that will be displayed in the store fronts of the merchants, and will identify those businesses that have adopted the artists.

The 57th Annual Arts & Crafts Festival in Fairhope, an Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce event, will take place March 20, 21 & 22, 2009 in downtown Fairhope. For more information call the chamber at (251) at 621-8222.