Fall Fountain Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts

For three days each November, Saguaro Boulevard in Fountain Hills closes to traffic from East Palisades Boulevard, and Parkview Avenue and Verde River Road close with it. Artist booths fill the pavement along Saguaro and the Avenue of the Fountains, next to Fountain Park and its fountain. The town’s tourism office calls that fountain the third largest in the world, and the Chamber of Commerce calls it one of the tallest. The 2026 Fall Fountain Festival of Fine Arts & Crafts runs November 13 through 15. Admission and parking are free, and the fair goes on rain or shine.

The McDowell Mountains stand around the downtown, and Four Peaks shows in the distance. Murals by Laura Thurbon, Jesse Perry, Tato Caraveo and others line the downtown blocks the crowd walks past. The tourism office puts the event area at about 2.5 miles round trip and says a visitor may walk anywhere from half a mile to four miles. Covered areas are few, and the Chamber advises sun protection and water. In the park, people sit on the grass, and children use the playground and a musical instrument park. The Chamber’s pages ask that pets stay home and say service animals are welcome. The town’s tourism page invites “furry companions.”

The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce runs the festival twice a year: in the fall on the second full weekend of November, and in the spring on the last full weekend of February. The next dates on its calendar are February 26–28, 2027, and November 12–14, 2027.

Four hundred booths, by one count

Every exhibitor passes a jury, and the counts of exhibitors vary from page to page. The Chamber’s FAQ says over 400 juried artists. The 2026 event listing gives nearly 450. The Chamber’s 2025 fall page gives nearly 500 “artists and craftspeople, food vendors and nonprofits,” and the town’s tourism page says over 500 each spring and fall. Crowd figures vary more widely. The tourism office reports over 100,000 visitors at its last event. The festival’s Facebook listing gives both “up to 100K in attendance” and “150,000+ visitors each year.” The Chamber’s About page says more than 200,000 a year, and its FAQ says tens of thousands over the three days.

The Chamber lists the media shown: apparel and accessories, ceramics, culinary arts, drawing, glass, home décor, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, music, painting, photography, prints, sculpture, textile design, weaving and wood. The tourism office adds large-format paintings, copper and metal pieces that include functional furniture, stained glass, salsas and cooking oils, hats and clothing for dogs and cats, and dog treats. In November many booths carry holiday ornaments. For the 2026 fall show the festival has featured the resin work of Sandy Ryan, the jewelry of Jonathan Black of Luce di Lucca, and the wreaths and seasonal décor of The Whimsical Spirit.

Every artist must be at the booth in person. At one February show, the Fountain Hills Times photographed Stephen McCullough of McCullough Fine Arts explaining the backstory of a piece to potential customers. Carl Ortman of Ortman Galleries, who paints landscapes and figures in oils and acrylics, stood beside a painting inspired by his time in Florence, Italy. Card readers depend on a signal that the Chamber says can be limited at times, so it recommends bringing cash.

Samosas, soft serve and the VFW gardens

More than 25 food and beverage vendors work four food courts, three of them named in Chamber pages: Saguaro, Verde River and Parkview. The roster includes Safari Samosas, Tom’s BBQ, Batchelor’s Pad BBQ, Gyros Corner, La Mai Thai, Thai Esan (also known as the Egg Roll Booth), Jake’s Donuts, Cheesecake on a Stick, Tillie’s Lemon Place, Wetzel’s Pretzels, and Simple Swirl Desserts, which serves dairy-free soft serve. The Noon and Sunset Kiwanis clubs each run a booth. The Chamber says some of the food vendors have been with the show for over 40 years. Visitors may bring water but no outside alcohol.

VFW Fountain Hills Post 7507 operates two beer and wine gardens. The Main Beer Garden is at the Saguaro Food Court and the Mini Beer Garden is at the Verde River Food Court, and buyers must be 21 or older with photo ID. Each garden has a stage. The Chamber says it does not book the music: the VFW manages the performances on site, and the times change through the weekend. First aid stations stand at the same two food courts. The lost and found is at the Chamber Information Booth, where items are held for up to six months.

The Fountain Hills Times reported in 2022 that the VFW’s beer garden fundraiser dates “all the way back to the beginning days of the festival.”

Sixty artists in Fountain Park

Those beginning days came in 1974, when the first festival was held in Fountain Park itself. Sixty artists came. According to the Times, getting enough artists for a group show was a big deal then, and “organizers took that as a really good sign.” The Chamber’s own account reads: “Imagine 60 artists at our inaugural show in 1974. Wow. That was gigantic.” In the Chamber’s telling, more artists heard about that first show and came the next year, and still more came the year after.

The show later moved out of the park onto the Avenue of the Fountains and Saguaro Boulevard. The Times called the February 25–27, 2022 show the 48th year of the festival. Betsy LaVoie, the Chamber’s president and CEO, remembers coming to the festival as a girl with her mother. “It brings back fond memories of my childhood and I’m thrilled that it is still going strong,” she told the paper. A later Facebook listing gave the festival as “now in its 50th year.”

At a recent February show, Joan and Jerry Dubson of Design Odysea had their booth on the avenue. According to the Times, they have sold their work at the festival for over 40 years.