Bazar À La Carte’s statewide night market tour closes with homecoming celebration in downtown Gainesville
Press release from How Bazar
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gainesville residents know Bazar À La Carte for its distinctive, eclectic blend of artisan makers, performances, workshops, and more, and now the rest of Florida has caught on, too. Over the past five months, the How Bazar team hosted four night markets that brought together Florida’s creative communities in Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa. After months of forging new creative collaborations from coast to coast, the time has come to celebrate the tour’s end with a homecoming extravaganza right where it all began: downtown Gainesville.
What: How Bazar presents Bazar À La Carte
When: Saturday, Dec. 6, 6-11 p.m.
Where: How Bazar, 60 S.W. 2 St., Gainesville, FL 32601
More information: Admission is free, but RSVPs are encouraged on thehowbazar.com.
Bazar À La Carte’s super-sized homecoming event will feature more than 100 artisan makers, both local creators from Gainesville and traveling vendors who participated in this year’s tour. Laila Fakhoury, event producer and co-owner of Gainesville’s How Bazar, curates Bazar À La Carte alongside fellow co-owner Jahi Khalfani. Together, they lead the initiative, with the support of four additional founding co-owners. Fakhoury said it’s been their intention throughout the tour to highlight the wealth of talent contained within each city the market visits — and to encourage new connections, collaboration, and cultural exchange among all who attend.
“Bazar À La Carte is a platform that aims to bring community together in order to create and legitimize a local alternative economy, so people are not just buying their candles from Walmart and Amazon; they’re waiting until the next market, so they can support a local creator,” Fakhoury says.
Not in town on Dec. 6 but still want to experience the unique magic of Bazar À La Carte? Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday between Dec. 12 and Jan. 25, the How Bazar team will host a series of 21 holiday night markets featuring vendors from around the state, pop-up activations, performances, and more.
In addition to rows upon rows of vendors like Moment Land, Dreams in Hiding Writing, and Liberty’s Jewelry Design, attendees to the Dec. 6 Bazar À La Carte will experience musical performances, live circus arts, a car show, and local food trucks — think of this night as a showcase, highlighting all that makes Gainesville and Florida so remarkable. The event also serves as a prelude to Big: Culture & Arts Festival, the annual celebration of creativity featuring live music, fashion, circus arts, and street culture, produced by the How Bazar team in downtown Gainesville each April.
“Each stop on the Bazar À La Carte tour has shown me that Gainesville’s vibe is really special. With each traveling market, we aimed to share and cultivate the kind of supportive, creative energy we have here in Gainesville,” Fakhoury says. “Our last stop is going to be really fun, because we’re coming back to our original stomping grounds after being so warmly received around the state. It feels like coming back home, and we’re bringing along some old and new friends.”
Gainesville-based poet and curator Fin Rose Aborizk created Dreams in Hiding Writing as a vehicle to share the power of the written word. She will be offering custom, typewritten poetry at the Dec. 6 event — guests will provide Aborizk with a prompt, a story, or just a word, and they’ll take home a one-of-a-kind poem crafted just for them. Aborizk says she’s thrilled to participate in the homecoming celebration of a locally grown entity that’s become synonymous with the very culture of downtown Gainesville itself.
“When I think of Gainesville, I think of How Bazar,” she says. “I am constantly enamored by the fact that How Bazar is truly for everyone, but especially those that want to be part of and learn about all that Gainesville holds. What I love most about the night markets are the pure auras of the people there, the laughing, the community, and being able to share what I love. I am excited to be in that space again.”
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: How Bazar’s holiday night market series runs each Friday-Sunday between Dec. 12 and Jan. 25, 2026, at How Bazar in downtown Gainesville. The fourth annual Big: Culture & Arts Festival hits downtown Gainesville April 10-12, 2026. For more information on Big, visit bigcaf.com.