So, you’ve signed up to be a vendor at a craft fair. You made all of your crafts, you planned out your booth space, you made your checklist of things to bring. The big day is upon you. The night before the craft fair you hear a lot of rain. Then, you see lightning and hear booms of thunder. You check the weather forecast for the next day and the forecast is heavy rain, flooding, high winds, and thunder and lightning. Your craft fair booth is set to be outdoors and you need to set up a tent. Here are some things you can do:

• Contact the craft fair organizer to see if the event will still take place.

• If the organizer announces the event will be cancelled then be sure to find out the terms of cancellation—e.g. refunds, credit for the next event, or rescheduling of the event altogether.

• If you do not hear back from the craft fair organizer you can decide for yourself not to go and risk taking a loss. This might be wise if you have crafts that are susceptible to water or wind damage. You might decide not to go to avoid getting drenched, avoid risky traffic situations, and avoid dangerous weather situations.

• You can decide to show up anyway and survey the weather situation. However, if the fair is a great distance away, then that is a lot of driving and wasted time and energy if the weather is too risky to set up.

• You can decide to set up no matter what and make use of your registered and paid-for booth. If you do, be sure to have a lot of towels, plastic sheet coverings, and protect your crafts as best as you can.

• On the down-side, there may be a low attendance of shoppers due to the bad weather conditions. Shoppers may not want to come out and risk the hazardous weather conditions. So, even if you do set up, there may be few, if any sales.

• Whatever you decide to do, be aware that inclement weather does occur and to be prepared in the event that it does happen during your scheduled fair.

• Today was one of those days for me. I decided not to attend. I stayed home to play it safe. It turns out that the event did start, but was cancelled half way through. The organizers sent everyone home to be safe a couple of hours through the fair after everyone had set up. The event organizer called me to tell me that they were going to reschedule the event to the following week. I however, already had an event the next week so they will credit me for the next one that I sign up for. The organizer told me that everyone was drenched and everything was flooded. I think it was a good call to stay home. It saved me from driving out there, getting drenched, and having all of my inventory get soaked.

• At a past event with a similar situation, I did decide to show up. That was in my earlier days as a crafter. The thought never occurred to me to not go to an event that I paid and signed up for. Well, I set up my tent and booth at that event. It was monsoon-like weather. The grassy area that I was set up on soon became a river at least a foot deep in running water. It was a good thing that I brought tarp. So I laid it down on the ground and it kept my feet from getting wet. It was so stormy at that event but shoppers still made their way over to my booth and I still had great sales that day. By the end of the day, everything was covered in mud. It’s a good thing that all of my crafts were put into plastic baggies so there was no water damage. Everything survived. It was good that I did show up to that event. It was not cancelled despite the severe weather. Sales were unusually great. I made it through the day without a major catastrophe.

• If I were faced with inclement weather today, I’d err on the side of keeping safe. Safety should always come first.

• Weigh and consider all of your options. Please stay safe everyone!