Maggie Valley Fall Arts & Crafts Festival

A Field Full of Handmade Work

The October show is the last of Maggie Valley’s three arts and crafts weekends each year, and the organizers say it is the one fall visitors like best. More than 100 artisans from across the Southeast set up on the Festival Grounds, and the town expects upward of 10,000 shoppers over the two days. It is the largest gathering of its kind in the valley.

Prices vary widely. One booth might have a turned wooden bowl or a framed landscape priced like a gallery piece, and the next one over sells goat milk soap. Past shows have featured:

• Pottery and wooden bowls
• Paintings and photography
• Jewelry
• Handmade furniture and yard art
• Goat milk soaps
• Seasonal decor, which leans toward fall and the holidays at this show

You don’t need a shopping list to enjoy it. Plenty of people come just to wander the rows, though few seem to leave empty-handed.

Festival Food

Food vendors work the grounds both days. At the July 2026 show that meant barbecue, sandwiches, glazed nuts, funnel cakes, kettle corn, ice cream and fresh-squeezed lemonade. The October lineup hasn’t been announced, but several of the same vendors have appeared at past shows. The grounds also have permanent restrooms and a concession building.

Pair It With a Fall Drive

Mid-October is a popular time to be in the mountains, so it is easy to build a day around this. Soco Road climbs east out of town to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Soco Gap. If you’re planning a longer stay, the same field hosts the Smoky Mountains Bluegrass Festival the following Saturday, October 24. Parkway sections can close for maintenance or weather, so check the National Park Service road status page before you go.

Admission, Parking and Donations

There is no charge to get in and no charge to park. At recent shows the chamber has taken optional donations at the gate for Friends of the Haywood County Animal Shelter, so a few dollars in your pocket won’t go to waste. Some cash is also useful in case a booth doesn’t take cards.

The Festival Grounds sit right on Soco Road in the middle of town and are hard to miss. The town runs a live webcam of the grounds, linked from the Festival Grounds website, so you can check the crowd and the sky before you head over.