Replying to Adam Michlin:
To my mind, the event is nothing without the vendors and a perk of being a vendor should be having early access to other vendors
Thank you for stating that so eloquently. At other events, I volunteered to staff a maker space's table, load and unload, etc. Early access was the perk that made it all worthwhile, thus freeing me to focus on supporting the event during "open hours".
especially since we want vendors manning their table during open to public hours.
Agreed.
Whatever "official" hours we post, there will always be "unofficial" hours ... So early vendor to vendor access at 7am and general public access at 8am seems to be the worst option except for all those other options that have been tried from time to time (with apologies to Churchill).
There's the letter of the law and then there's the intention of the law. There are always ways to circumvent any attempt of "fair access". One place had the rule "no SALES until opening time", so everyone quietly and politely set things aside, reserving items for other vendors until the opening bell. -- jeffj