Vendor Events · Redford, MI
Vendor Markets
and Craft Fairs
A room measured in tables and aisles rather than guest capacity, because those are different numbers and only one of them tells you how many spaces you can sell.
Check Your Date
Organising a Market?
Send your date and how many tables you need. You will get a real table count for the layout, what the venue supplies, and the load-in position — the three things you need before you can sell a single space.
Inquiry sent
The PREVA events team has your details and will come back about the date and the layout.
The Number That Matters
A Guest Capacity Is Not a Table Count
They are different numbers and the gap between them is large. A six-foot table needs the vendor standing behind it and two or three shoppers stopping in front without blocking the aisle. Work off a party capacity and you will oversell your floor.
The table count comes from the events team for your layout. It is not printed here because it has not been measured with aisles, and it is the one figure on this page you would be selling booth spaces against. A guess that turns out high means refunding vendors; a real number means you can open bookings the day you hold the date.
The Part That Goes Wrong
Thirty Vendors, All Arriving at Once
Load-in is where a market day actually fails, and it is entirely fixable in advance. These are the four things worth settling before you publish a vendor pack.
Stagger the Arrivals
Give vendors slots rather than one opening time. Half an hour of staggering saves an hour of queue at the door.
Know Which Door
Which entrance vendors use, and whether carts fit through it, is confirmed with the events team rather than discovered on the morning.
Where Vendors Park
Parking is on site, but vendors unloading and then parking is a two-step problem. Tell them the plan in advance and it runs itself.
Power Decides the Plan
Card readers, lights and warmers all need an outlet. Find out which table positions have power before you allocate a single space.
Worth Knowing Early
Two Things Nobody Tells a First-Time Organiser
Neither is complicated, and both are much easier handled now than on the day. They are raised here because most vendor pages do not raise them at all.
Sales Tax and Registration
Your vendors, your reputation
- Sellers of goods in Michigan generally need to be registered
- Sales tax usually has to be collected on what they sell
- As organiser you are who everybody assumes has checked
- Michigan Treasury is where to confirm what applies
- Sort it before you take booth fees, not after
Food Vendors
A licensing question, not a preference
- Outside sellers handling food inside a licensed kitchen is a health department matter
- It is the venue's licence at stake, so it is decided by the team
- A market with food stalls is a different situation from one without
- Say so on the form and you will get a straight answer
This is a plain-language summary and not legal or tax advice. PREVA cannot register your vendors or confirm their obligations, and the events team will ask what arrangements you have made before a market with food sellers is confirmed.
The Space
What You Are Laying Out
Worth walking with a tape measure before you draw a floor plan.
The Main Room
Where the rows go. Table count for your layout, and which positions have power, are confirmed by the events team rather than estimated from a capacity figure.
Overflow & Lounge
Somewhere for shoppers to sit down, which keeps people in the building longer. Also where a demo table or a raffle usually ends up.
Entrance & Parking
Where vendors unload and where shoppers arrive. On site, off I-96 and Telegraph — which matters more for a market than for almost any other event.
Simple & Clear
How to Get a Market Booked
Send Date and Tables
How many vendor tables you want, and whether anyone is selling food.
Get a Real Table Count
For your layout, with aisles. This is the number you open bookings against.
Hold the Date
Before you take a single booth fee from a vendor, not after.
Plan the Load-In
Slots, door and parking, written into the pack you send your vendors.
Questions
Before You Sell a Single Space
Hold the Date First
Get the Table Count Before You Open Bookings
Send your date and how many tables you are hoping for. You will get a real number for the layout, and the load-in plan to put in your vendor pack.
