My fairs run out of The Holiday Inn, which is still unable to open, so until we have an opening date for hotels we can’t begin to plan even our first event. Having said that, we have been thinking quite a lot about how our fairs might go ahead when they do resume.
If social distancing is still at 2m, we would have to limit the number of exhibitors and visitors to our fairs. We have had various ideas, such as an invitation-only event, limiting the number of exhibitors and probably each exhibitor being able to invite two to three guests, possibly with a time slot. We usually have two fairs each month, but we may have to start slowly with just one event and see how it progresses.
The hotel may also have guidance they have to follow which might affect how our fairs look in the future. It is all very uncertain!
If (like I’ve heard Waterstones is doing) items have to be quarantined once they have been touched for up to 72 hours then it would be virtually impossible for fairs to resume until such advice and rules were relaxed.
Kim Jeffery
Etc Fairs
