Market Days
Is one of the Southeast’s largest and best-juried arts and crafts shows, featuring the unique, handmade creations of over 300 artists and top-quality artisans and craftspeople. Market Days offers a beautiful array of works in various price ranges, from breathtaking fine art to charming stocking stuffers. The works include fine arts, ceramics, country furniture, stained glass, woodwork, glasswork, dolls, clocks, pottery, jewelry, sculpture, metalwork, clothing, photography and calligraphy.
INFORMATION
Market Days is one of the Southeast’s largest and best-juried arts and crafts shows, featuring the unique, handmade creations of over 300 artists and top-quality artisans and craftspeople. Market Days offers a beautiful array of works in various price ranges, from breathtaking fine art to charming stocking stuffers. The works include fine arts, ceramics, country furniture, stained glass, woodwork, glasswork, dolls, clocks, pottery, jewelry, sculpture, metalwork, clothing, photography, and calligraphy. This event is volunteer-run and all proceeds go to support the Tallahassee Museum whose mission is to inspire people to transform their lives, community, and the world through an enhanced understanding of our region's natural and cultural environments. This year, enjoy live music while you shop - details soon!
Location
North Florida Fairgrounds
441 E Paul Russell Road
Tallahassee, Florida 32301
(850) 575-8684--Attendees
Hours
Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th, 2025
Saturday Hours 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday Hours 10 am - 4 pm
General Admission Tickets
Tickets are available at the gate on the days of the event and are only good for one-day admission.
$10 for Adults (13+)
Children (Ages 0-12)-FREE
FREE PARKING
Sunday admission include live music performance - details to come!
Early Bird Shopping
Saturday 8am – 10am
CLICK HERE Early Bird tickets ONLINE ($30 per ticket) – ON SALE NOW.
Limited to just 1,000 tickets, Market Days Early Bird shoppers peruse stress-free and get the first choice on top gifts, and 2 hours head start on holiday shopping before the rush of the crowds arrive. Plus you get premium parking, coffee and muffins! Tickets to participate in this treasured holiday shopping tradition are available for $30 (sold in advance). Everyone (except infants) must have an early bird ticket to enter.
Benefits:
- First to Shop the Show – You get in 2 hours before general admission shoppers!
- Unlimited Admission All Weekend – including a live music performance!
- Saturday Morning Refreshments (coffee and muffins)
- Free On-site Parking – Early Bird parking will now be at the Monroe Street Entrance Gate!
- Support the Tallahassee Museum
Early Bird Shopping is sponsored by:
RULES & REGULATIONS
All arts and crafts media are eligible. Items submitted must be the original work of the Artist or Craftsman applying. This show is promoted as an arts and crafts show, not buy/sell. You must disclose any items submitted on your application that are not made by you but are a necessary part of your original work. Artists can only display and sell work that has been juried.
The Arts and Crafts Chair and Committee will have final approval on all acceptance/rejections, placement, and reserve the right to remove misrepresented or inappropriate materials from the show.
If your exhibit contains school or sports logos, you must have your trademark licensing information with you. Reproductions of the images submitted by artists who are accepted may be used for publicity.
Applications will not be juried without payment.
In order to be juried for Market Days, you must pay the non-refundable $35 application fee and a $100 deposit. If you are not accepted your $100 deposit will be refunded to you. If you are accepted to the show and paid the $100 deposit, the balance of your fee will be due no later than August 31st. No money will be refunded after this date. If payment is not received, you are subject to lose your deposit and space at the show. The committee will assign all spaces and honor any space request, whenever possible, based on availability.
Categories: Our jury is broken down into categories, i.e., jewelry, woodcraft, food, wearable art, etc. If you have more than one product in your booth, you must list your products. Due to the number of applications we receive for the jewelry category, if you have jewelry of any kind in your booth, jewelry is the category in which you will be juried. Example: If your primary product is woodcraft and you also make jewelry to sell, your jewelry will take precedence and you will be juried in the jewelry category.
Digital Media: Artists and craftsmen must submit at least three (3) high-resolution digital images of their current work. Also, you must submit 1 image of you making your product and copies of two current receipts where you purchased materials to make your product. To be considered for use in the newspaper advertisement, it is important that images be of excellent quality, in good condition, and representative of work you will sell. Pictures will become part of the Market Days archives.
TAXES
Exhibitors are responsible for collecting and reporting all State of Florida and Leon County sales taxes (7.5%).
During Market Days, you are required to collect 7.5% Florida Sales Tax for every taxable sale. The taxes collected will be submitted to the Florida Department of Revenue.
If you have a Florida Sales Tax Identification Number, you will be expected to submit the tax collected at Market Days on your Florida Sales Tax return. If you do not have a Florida Tax Identification number, you will be required to submit the Florida Sales Tax on the Special Event Sales Tax Packet you will be given at check-in.
At the end of the show, we will provide the Florida Department of Revenue your name, contact information, and Florida Sales Tax Identification Number, if provided, as record that you participated in the event.
FEES AND BOOTH SPACE
Application Fee: (non-refundable) – $35
Entry Fee: Space size, cap, corner, tables and camping fee details are broken down at check out. If the requested space size is not available and you agree to a different size space, you will either be billed or refunded the difference.
Electricity is available for all spaces: You are responsible for providing your own heavy duty extension cords, 3-way plugs, duct tape and any additional lighting you may require. NO space heaters are allowed.
JURY DETAILS
- Average number of applications submitted each year: 325
- Average number of artists selected from the jury to participate in the event: 280
- Average number of exempt from jury artists who are invited to participate in the event: 0
- Vendors that are excluded/ineligible: Buy/Sell Vendors
- How images are viewed by jurors: Computer Monitor
- Within a medium category, applications are sorted and viewed by: Application ID (number generated when application is started by artist)
- Jurors score applications using the following scale: Yes, No, or Maybe
- Number of jurors scoring applications: 9
- The show organizes the jurors for a: Single jury panel that scores applications for all medium categories
- Jurors score: Convened as a group in one room
- Am I allowed to observe the jury process? Jury process is closed
Welcome to the 59th Annual Market Days
The Holiday season has officially arrived and the 59th Annual Market Days is ready to welcome you with an amazing selection of original and unique gifts of abundant varieties for those who are special in your life. This holiday shopping tradition helps us create and celebrate wonderful memories with friends and family while perusing the amazing creative skills of nearly 300 artisans from across the country who were juried and accepted in this year’s Market Days.
Market Days 2024 is as essential today for the Tallahassee Museum as it was in 1965. Funds from the Market Days benefit the Museum in innumerable ways. From educational programs for all ages to the care of our living wildlife collection and historic buildings, Market Days supports the Museum helping to provide the many services we deliver to our audiences throughout the region.
We are tremendously grateful for our sponsors who help bring Market Days to life each year and we thank these supporters and encourage you to patronize their businesses.
We are excited to include in Market Days 2025 the addition of live music! This live performance is included in general admission for all Market Days shoppers to enjoy. More details to come soon.
Lastly, I extend a heartfelt thank you to the endless dedication of our Market Days volunteers who work so tirelessly throughout the year to make Market Days a reality each year.
Whether it’s your first or your 59th year attending Market Days, we thank you for your continued support of the Tallahassee Museum and wish you the best as you enjoy our region’s most memorable holiday shopping tradition.
With warm thoughts of the season,
President/CEO Tallahassee Museum
Thank you to our Market Days 2024 Sponsors!
Early Bird Shopping Sponsor
Music Stage Sponsor – join us Sunday afternoon for a live performance by Tobacco Rd Band!
2024 Market Days Committee
Event Chair Co-Chairs: Rhonda Hammond & Melanie Terry
Operations Director: Richard Massey
Assistant Operations Director: Jim Cunningham
Gates Coordinator: Brandy Cottrell & Olivia Heinze
Arts & Crafts Co-Chairs: Traci Tyson
Coffee Chairs: James Wade & Kyle Frost
Early Bird Co-Chairs: Laurie Jones, Barbara Corven
Exhibit & Recruitment Coordinator: Lou Ogburn
Security Chair: Jim Skipper
Info Booth Chairs: Bill & Dianna Norwood
Feature Writer: Sam Miller
Grounds Chairs: Gary Adams & Richard Dowden
Hospitality Tent Chairs: Lee Matthews, Lynn Guevara
Vendor Hospitality Chair: Mary Riordan
Jr. Exhibitors Chair: Pat Bull
Food Co-Chairs: Ken Mills, Jill Brock
Gingerbread Co-Chairs: Jennifer Craig, Renee Strickland
Building 1 Co-Chairs: Sheila Connell, Rhonda Hammond
Building 2 Co-Chairs: Cyndi Mendelson, Colleen Kelly
Building 3 Co-Chairs: JoAnn Prescott, Annie Prescott
Building 4 Co-Chairs: Sheila Skipper, Barbara Ashe
Building 6 Co-Chairs: Kay Cunningham, Jim Robinson
Outdoor Co-Chairs: Pam Kyllonen, Tauno Kyllonen, Jr.
Event Staff: Sandra Washington, Angela Dell
Interested in being a Market Days 2025 Arts & Crafts Vendor? Click here for more information.
To view the maps below as a PDF, please click Market Days Vendor Maps 2024.
Interested in being a Market Days 2025 Arts & Crafts Vendor? Click here for more information.
Pat Bull, St. Marks, Jr. Exhibitors Tent
Young Artists Get Their Start as “Jr. Exhibitors”
Young artists have a special place at Market Days, the arts and crafts tent for “Jr. Exhibitors.” For some, it is the beginning of a Market Days career that eventually includes space in one of the main buildings or along the Midway.
Jr. Exhibitors Chair Pat Bull is a bee keeper from the St. Marks area and her kids, grandkids and now great grandkids have produced honey for the youth tent for many years. Pat makes them do all the work, “straight from the hives to an extractor and into the jars.” A portion of the money they make goes into the care of the bees.
Jr. Exhibitors sell honey, like Pat’s family, bees wax candles, jewelry, paintings, dog treats, plants, Christmas wreaths, ornaments, magnets, soaps, goat soap and lip gloss. “You would be amazed at what some of these kids have done,” she says. One young artist was producing Christmas light globes, including the welded frame. “Now that he is older, I told him he had to move into a building.”
Pat’s first Market Days with a Jr. Exhibitor was when her daughter, Christine, was 12. Christine is 48 today. Pat has been Jr. Exhibitors Chairman the past 12 years. Her three youngest grandchildren will be showing this year – Zachery, Elise and Anna.
Pat has 24 tables reserved for the 2024 Market Days. Several families have purchased two tables each. Participation is down from more than 50 tables before COVID. One reason is, “a lot of kids are now over the 18 age limit.” One family from the Tampa area has been coming up for Market Days for years. Another family in Pensacola has also been a regular. Two Tallahassee area schools have purchased tables in the Children’s Tent this year.
The young artists have to be supervised by an adult and be of kindergarten through high school age. “But they still are young entrepreneurs,” Pat says. “The experience teaches them business sense and money management and they have to use their math skills. They learn the importance of responsibility. Just to see the look on their faces when they sell something is wonderful.”
Poor Boys Opals, Deb Chance, DeLeon Springs, FL
https://www.facebook.com/POORBOYSOPALS/
Jim Runkle’s Wife and Daughter Carry on Poor Boys Opals Jewelry
Jim and Barbara Runkle and Poor Boys Opals were known world-wide for their one of a kind, hand-crafted opal jewelry with stones from their own mine in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, in the Outback.
They were regulars at the largest gem and mineral shows in the country as opal suppliers, cutters and jewelry designers. They spent six months of the year at their opal mine in the Outback, and much of the rest of the year offering their jewelry and gems at shows and on cruise ships, including the Queen Mary and Norwegian Cruise Lines. Jim had a cameo role in cable television’s Outback Opal Hunters.
They were fixtures at Market Days during the past 30 years. Jim died in July 2023 at age 79.
Opal jewelry crafted by the Runkles or daughter Deb Chance will be offered at the 2024 Market Days. It may be Barbara Runkle’s last show, Deb says, although she and husband Doug Chance will carry on the family opal jewelry business. Like Jim and Barbara, Deb and Doug live in DeLeon Springs, near Daytona Beach, and also operate a marina.
“When Dad began to slow down five or six years ago, I stepped up to keep it going,” Deb says. Travel to Australia has been difficult during the Covid years, so she has not been to that country yet, but all of her stones come from Australian miners, who were friends of her family over the years. She takes delivery at the Tucson and Denver gem and minerals show, two of the world’s largest.
She is offering at Market Days 14k gold jewelry and sterling silver jewelry with opals, all handcrafted by her father or herself, and opal stones. “Every single piece is handcrafted and one of a kind,” she says. One of their signature pieces is the “Queen of Yowah,” a pendant necklace with an opal from Yowah, Southwest Queensland, unique to the region.
There is a story behind the Poor Boys Opals name. Her dad was a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and her mom a secretary. “We were just poor,” Deb says, and their only vacation was two weeks camping in North Carolina, mining for gems.
Market Days is much smaller than the international shows, but it has been “economically viable” for Poor Boys Opals over the years. “We have great, loyal customers. It is nice to see them again and again,” Deb says. “It’s fun, a fun show. The people who put it on are wonderful!”
B’s Creative Stitches, Barbara Pace, Tallahassee
B’s Creative stitches: She Sews All Year for Market Days
Barbara Pace, B’s Creative Stitches in Tallahassee, is participating in her 10th Market Days and, while she shows at other festivals, this has become her major event each year. “I’ve been sewing all year to have product for Market Days,” Barbara says.
Barbara creates one of a kind handbags, back packs, wallets and similar items. She began in fabric 15 years ago and now also uses cork fabric and most recently leather.
Handbags may take Barbara three to four hours, depending on the detail, wallets, two to three hours. “It’s a solo operation, from cutting, the exterior, interior and stabilizer; to assembling kits with hardware, zippers and stabilizer and, finally, to actually sewing!” she says.
“Sewing has always been a part of my being since early childhood and after retiring in 2009, I started creating handbags from decorator samples, belts and other decorative ‘finds.’”
“My Aunt Mary encouraged me to participate in craft shows and I have done as many as six yearly…I was privileged to be accepted as a vendor for Market Days starting in 2014 and now it’s 2024!”
B’s Creative Stitches’ other craft shows include Calico Arts & Crafts in Moultrie, GA; Inman Park Festival and Chastain Park Festival in Atlanta and, in the Tallahassee area, French Country Flea Market, Bradley’s Country Store Market, Woman’s Club Holiday Show at Los Robes Club and American Vintage Markets.
George Barham, Holy Land Cradle, Jacksonville
https://www.holylandcradle.com
Holy Land Cradle Offers Handicrafts from Olive Wood in Bethlehem and Jerusalem
George Barham and Holy Land Cradle, from Jacksonville, bring to Market Days musical nativity scenes, crosses, figures and religious, artistic craft made from olive wood trees in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The handicrafts are produced by family-owned olive wood workshops in or near Jerusalem.
“Holy Land Cradle is proud to introduce to you our handicrafts made of the sacred olive wood trees in Bethlehem, the place where Jesus was born, and Jerusalem the place where Jesus died, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven,” George notes on his Internet site. “Our crafts are mainly religious, artistic crafts made using a friendly, environmental process where no tree is ever damaged.”
Most of the Holy Land olive wood workshops are family owned, are often located within Christian homes, and usually run by people who have inherited the business from their father and Grandparents, George says. “Handicraft production becomes a time of relaxation where we flow out our creative energy at maximum, enjoying how an olive wood trunk begins to change into a precious figure in our hands.”
Holy Land Cradle is offering wooden nativity scene table top displays and Christmas ornaments, handmade crosses, figures, plagues and candleholders.
Virginia Charles, Tallahassee
MicroMitts & More
Tallahassee Fabric Artist Features Reusable Gift Bags, Micromitt Hot Pads
Virginia Charles enjoyed sewing doll clothes as a youngster and later as an adult “frilly Easter dresses” for her daughters. After ending a 44-year teaching career eight years ago, she found a new interest in craft shows, including Market Days, Yellow Daisy in Stone Mountain, GA, and a variety of church bazaars. A Tallahassee resident, Market Days is her favorite.
Her current best seller is her “MicroMitts— microwave hot pads for bowls –which keep fingers and thumbs from getting burned!” She also makes drawstring travel jewelry bags in a variety of patterns. She once made “bridesmaids’ gifts for the bride in her own special wedding colors.”
“But my heart lies in making reusable gift bags— birthday, Christmas, all occasion. The idea started over 30 years ago. I couldn’t stand to buy wrapping paper only to see it thrown away, adding to our burgeoning landfills,” Virginia says.
“My GreenWraps are the answer to ecological gift wrapping. They can be used over and over again… They are versatile, accommodating boxes as well as awkward shapes. With a drawstring closure, wrapping is easy and fast without searching for tape and scissors. Recycled Christmas cards become easy gift tags.
“Over the years, I’ve made gift bag sets for various family groups. One Christmas, we had four families together for a holiday gift exchange. After a gift was opened, the bag was tossed back to the owner for next year. Amazingly, after all was done, the amount of trash to discard filled only one small grocery bag!”
She can be contacted at v_charles@yahoo.com.
