Late Friday afternoon, downtown parking restrictions start so crafters can set up. By Saturday morning, the historic district's streets are lined with white tents for more than 350 crafters. The Mount Dora Craft Fair runs this Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Since last year's fair, the city has scheduled three downtown street segments to switch to one-way traffic, with work starting in September. The storefronts behind the booths have also turned over. Since July, a yoga studio, a plant-based café, a consignment boutique and two vintage shops have opened, and two longtime downtown shops have closed. Organizers say past fairs have drawn roughly 100,000 visitors over the two days.
Three blocks set to run one way
On August 19, the City of Mount Dora announced the new traffic pattern and scheduled the work one street at a time, mostly Monday through Thursday:
| Street | Direction | Segment | Scheduled start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Street | Southbound | 5th Avenue to 4th Avenue | September 1 |
| Baker Street | Southbound | 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue | September 7 |
| Tremain Street | Northbound | 3rd Avenue to 5th Avenue | September 14 |
The city planned to finish the whole project in September. Each street was set to reopen in its new pattern as soon as crews finished it. The city also said construction dates were approximate and could shift with weather, so the posted signs on each block have the final word.
The city's reasoning explains where the change came from. It first looked at adding angled parking downtown to create more spaces, but an engineering review found the streets too narrow. Converting to one-way traffic was the way to gain spaces on the same pavement, and the city also expects it to improve traffic flow and emergency vehicle access. The city tied the design to its Downtown CRA Parking Studies Update and its FY 2025–2030 Strategic Plan. The release did not say how many spaces the conversion adds.
Adam Sumner, the city's Community Development Director and CRA Manager, told Mount Dora Buzz that "this project is about making the best use of the space we have while improving how efficiently residents, visitors and delivery vehicles move through the heart of our city." The Community Redevelopment Agency paid for the project.
For anyone driving in from the south side of town, the directions matter. Under the new plan, Tremain Street carries traffic north from 3rd Avenue toward 5th, and Baker and Alexander carry it south on their converted blocks. That means the familiar route north on Baker from 3rd Avenue goes away on those blocks.
The fair covers the same ground
Most of the year, the change is about parking. On Craft Fair weekend, it overlaps the festival map. The fair's GPS address is 510 N. Baker Street, in the middle of the Baker segment set to go one way. In past years, closures have covered much of the same area. For the 2023 fair, WESH reported closures on Baker Street from Fifth to Third avenues, Donnelly Street from Seventh to Third, Alexander Street from Fifth to Third, Fifth and Fourth avenues from Tremain to McDonald, and Third Avenue from Tremain to Alexander. Those streets closed Friday afternoon and reopened Sunday night. That was the 2023 plan, not this year's posted one. It does show that the fair has usually closed the same Baker and Alexander blocks the city picked for one-way traffic.
That means the weekend crowd will mostly see those blocks barricaded. The one-way pattern matters for everyday driving once the tents come down.
The storefronts behind the booths
The fair's more than 350 crafters come from across the country. Mount Dora Buzz notes that downtown's shops and restaurants stay open during fair hours and later. Many of those storefronts are new since summer.
Daybreak Yoga Collective and Roots Café, 430 N. Alexander Street. Both opened in July in the space that used to be the Segway location. The studio teaches hot, warm and cool yoga, and the café serves breakfast, lunch and plant-based food. Lake & Sumter Style reported that founder Mary Beth Wallis started the studio out of her own practice and a wish for a community space. Chef Sede Clark saw a local gap in plant-based dining and spent a year developing the menu. The address sits on the Alexander block that now runs south from 5th to 4th.
Refind, 440 N. Donnelly Street, second floor. A consignment and thrift boutique with apparel for women, men and kids. It opened in July.
Flipping Good Finds, 121 N. Highland Street. Vintage pieces, antiques and unusual finds in a historic former home. It also opened in July.
Magic City Antiques and Jewelry, Renaissance Building. Open by appointment in the former smoothie-shop space, with jewelry, pipes, watches and figurines.
Fashionela, Mount Dora Marketplace. A women's boutique near Dark & Light Cafe, carrying jeans, tops, dresses, handbags and fragrances.
The Butcher's Nook. The downtown lunch spot added a limited Sunday breakfast in August: the Jersey Debate, the Glory Box and a rotating special. That makes it an option for fairgoers on Sunday.
Two familiar names are gone. According to Mount Dora Buzz's October edition, Lemon Drop Market, the downtown specialty food store, closed in September. Its owners are focusing on their other Mount Dora store, Love Home Harmony, and their newer Lemon Drop Market in The Villages. Lee Fusion Art Glass closed when its owners retired. It had been downtown for many years, in three locations.
One opening is still pending. Rome's Flavours, an Italian restaurant with an existing location in Winter Park, was still in build-out as of Mount Dora Buzz's September edition, and no opening month had been announced.
What the turnover adds up to
Taken together, the mix has shifted. The two closures were a specialty food shop and an art glass gallery. The summer's openings are a yoga studio with scheduled classes, a café, a consignment boutique and two vintage shops. Consignment and vintage stock changes as items sell, and a class schedule repeats every week. So more of downtown's new businesses are built around coming back than around a single visit.
That fits the city's own stated goal for the one-way conversion: more spaces from the pavement it already has. A downtown with more reasons to return on an ordinary Tuesday needs those spaces more than a downtown that fills up two weekends a year.
Getting in this weekend from the south side
The fair's official guidance points to three options:
- Mount Dora Christian Academy, 301 W. 13th Avenue. Large shuttle buses run from here to the festival, about three minutes away. Parking is $10 per car, collected by MDCA, and the money goes to school programs.
- Mount Dora High School. There is no shuttle from this lot. Visitors park and walk about three blocks to the event.
- Private lots closer in. Paid private lots near the event are another option, along with the free Freebie shuttle service.
The fair allows well-behaved pets but strongly encourages leaving them home because of the crowds.
South-side drivers should also expect Lake County's roundabout project at Old U.S. Highway 441 and Eudora Road, where detours remain in place. A short stretch of Old Highway 441 is closed for the project, which is expected to finish in 2027. Plan your approach around that detour before you reach the one-way blocks.
The Friday after: Empty Bowls at Donnelly Park
Five days after the fair ends, a smaller downtown event raises money for local hunger relief. Mount Dora's Empty Bowls fundraiser takes over Donnelly Park on Friday, October 30, at 6 p.m. Proceeds go to Lake Cares Food Pantry, and Yada Yada Pottery is the event's pottery partner. Tickets are $30. Each guest takes home a handcrafted bowl and gets soup from local restaurants, live music and a silent auction. Mount Dora Buzz reports that tickets usually sell out in advance. Details and tickets are on the Empty Bowls Mount Dora site.
If you have questions about downtown's changes, or want to know how they show up in the homes around the historic district, Scott McFadden is happy to talk them through. Let's Connect.
