This exciting festival event is unique in its focus on fine art, combined with cultural charm, and the fun-loving spirit of residents of Coastal Alabama! Enjoy vendors offering fine art from across the southeast and a variety of local seafood options. Live music will be running all day long on both days of the festival and don’t miss the Banjo and Fiddle Competition on Sunday where the top 3 scores in each age bracket win a cash prize!

Fairhope has been the subject of many history books, but Alabama author Leslie Anne Tarabella offers a fresh perspective of her hometown in her latest release. Blending humor, travel, and memoir, her fourth book, We Don’t Push in Fairhope, has become an instant success, hitting Amazon’s #1 spot for Southern Travel book and a top spot in Southern humor categories. When asked about this unique mix of genres, Tarabella laughed and said, “Well, that’s Fairhope for you—a little bit of everything and beyond explanation!”

Imagine walking outside at sunrise and seeing forty thousand zinnia blooms in your backyard. Ben Trione, descended from one of the first Italian families to come to Daphne, experiences this spectacular sight every morning from May through November. His ancestors were farmers, and he has the innate ability to grow hundreds of thousands of zinnias and sunflowers, which he generously delivers to 15 different Nursing Homes on the Eastern Shore. 

Kerrie Benson is a dynamo. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. She has found her calling through a lifetime of enthusiasm, love, and patience. As a development coordinator for Children’s Hospital of Alabama, she has brought many donors to the table, and the golf course, among other fun venues. All in the name of love for helping others!

Reading the obituaries every day is something I do. In the old days they would print, ‘she died of natural causes’ meaning, she got old and up and died. Not anymore, they say nothing about the cause of death. The best I can do to figure out what happened is to read between the lines of the suggested ‘in lieu of’ donation.

A lot is happening in Mobile these days and the buzz is getting louder every day. A few of the projects underway include a new airline terminal being built at Brookley Field, and a well-deserved and much-needed Hall of Fame Walk on Water Street downtown, honoring the five Major League Baseball Hall of Famers, and one National Football League HOFer, Robert Brazille. The statues of Satchel Paige, Henry Aaron, Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith, and Billy Williams display the most HOFers from any city in the United States. Pretty amazing! 

Rock music fans all over the world know Roger McGuinn as the leader of the groundbreaking '60s band called the Byrds, but he's been playing mostly solo shows for the last several decades.

One of the best things about Fairhope is that it has a Film Festival. Like the Sundance Festival, Tribeca, South by Southwest, and many others, the Fairhope Film Festival, held on the second weekend in November, features forty of the best films. This year will be the thirteenth annual event, and a new Executive Director will be at the helm.