What to do when you get sick right before a show

You wake up two days before a show with a scratchy throat and that specific dread that only vendors know. You've paid for the table, printed the stock, blocked the calendar, and now your body has other plans. This happens more than people admit, and how you handle the next 48 hours matters more than how you feel right now.

Be honest with yourself early

The instinct is to push through and hope it clears up. Sometimes it does. But a head cold two days out and a fever the morning of are very different situations, and deciding at 6am on show day whether you can physically do this is the worst possible time to make that call. Check in with yourself the day before, not the morning of, while you still have options.

Ask honestly: can you stand for six to ten hours? Can you talk to strangers for that long without your voice giving out? Is this contagious in a way that's unfair to the people at the table next to you? If the answer to any of those is a genuine no, it's better to know now.

If you can still go, adjust your plan

• Bring a folding stool. Nobody will think less of you for sitting between customers, and it saves energy you'll need for the actual conversations.
• Pack lozenges, tissues, and pain relief specifically, separate from your general show bag, so you're not rationing.
• Lower your own expectations for the day out loud, to yourself, before you get there. A slower, quieter show is still a show.
• Ask a table neighbor if they can keep an eye on your booth for five minutes if you need to step away, most vendors are glad to return the favor.

If you genuinely can't go

This is the harder call and there's no way around that. A few things help soften the actual logistics:

• Check the show's vendor policy before you assume the worst. Some events allow a table transfer to a friend, a partial refund, or credit toward a future show if you contact them early enough.
• If you have a tablemate or friend who could run your booth for even part of the day with your existing display and pricing already set, that's often better than a completely empty table.
• Let your email list or social followers know you're taking care of yourself rather than going silent. Most people are more understanding than you'd expect, and it takes the pressure off explaining later.

The money conversation nobody likes having

Missing a show costs real money, table fees, product made specifically for that event, sometimes travel already booked. It's fair to feel that loss. It's also true that showing up seriously sick, especially to a packed convention hall, risks a much worse outcome, a full week wiped out afterward instead of one show. Weigh the actual cost of missing this one show against the cost of your health cratering for the two weeks after, because that's usually the real trade-off, not just "one bad day versus a fine one."

Preventing the next one

You can't fully control catching something, conventions are basically a shared-air experiment, but a few habits lower the odds: hand sanitizer at your table for yourself, not just show, actually washing your hands between handling cash and touching your face, and not running on zero sleep in the week before a show, since exhaustion is when your immune system usually gives up first.

Getting sick before a show isn't a failure of planning. It's just bad timing that happens to a body that doesn't know there's a convention on the calendar. Give yourself permission to make the call that protects you, not just the one that protects the sale.

Curious what a Shapeshift kit actually looks like in person? Head to the Artist Booths homepage to see the full lineup and find the one that fits your table.