As for vaccines...
This is something I would research, never having been to ferret events. I don't know if you'd need any kind of permit, and if so, would all of the participants need rabies vax if it's required by county/city? Most of mine don't don't have it (Jaffa and Prissy had it in 2011 to come into the USA), because the chances of getting rabies vs. the risks of reacting to the vaccine aren't worth it to us.
.
Also related to vaccines... A friend in UK takes hers to shows and events. In August, all 4 came down with ECE and were on antibiotics for a month. One of them went to the Bridge a couple weeks ago. He was older, but the vet said it was complications of ECE. There's no test for it, and all you can do is treat symptoms and prevent complications, like respiratory infections, with antibiotics. So, back in the day I was all gung ho about getting some sort of ferret show going. Now I'm hesitant to take mine to one. We don't have ADV down here, but ECE is readily transmitted. It's not usually fatal if caught early and treated, but any exposed ferret will get it and it can take months to show itself. Just a precaution to consider. Probably if you had a show in a public place you'd have to have at least rabies.
As for alcohol, I wouldn't ban it outright, but I wouldn't encourage it either, especially for the first event. Don't even mention it. You wouldn't know most of the people coming, so why leave yourself open to trouble?
There are 2 shelters within 90 minutes of us, plus the one we got Rosa from.
<message edited by unclejoe on Tuesday, October 14, 2014 7:56 PM>