You can go online now and see the Show Book - it has all of the maps of the vendors, the buildings, and the shuttle routes. Make a plan. Do not miss the Antique Quilt Show at the Civic Center. Like others have advised, wear comfortable shoes, and bring a tote bag to carry your small purchases and paper handouts. I would try to carry the smallest purse you can get away with - some of the booths are crowded and a big purse will get in the way. The food vendors in the parking lot may technically be "open" until 4 pm but we found that they ran out of food starting around 2pm. By 3pm your choices were very limited so don't plan on eating late.
A word of caution: do not blindly depend on the buses and shuttles to always be on time. I took my husband in 2017 and they "forgot" to pick up about 75 of us from Park and Ride Lot on Wednesday morning. We all got there early to make sure we saw the opening of the Show... but we were not picked up for about 90 minutes. Yes, we were in the correct spot. We called and emailed and Facebook messaged anyone we could think would help but no one answered. Eventually someone drove their car to the show and they sent a bus. THEN on Wednesday night, after the All-Star Show special event, there were no buses to take us back to our cars. I had made sure via email that we would all have transportation but none of the buses were scheduled to take us back to the Park And Ride lot. Several of us were stranded AGAIN. One of the bus company managers sent a driver off his course but it took an extra hour to get it figured out. When I complained on Thursday at the show, all of the AQS staff denied that this had happened. HELLO - it wasn't only me... there were a bunch of us both in the morning and at night. When I emailed AQS, they also denied it happened. My husband was so mad about the situation he refused to go back again. We talked to several people that week who had stories of them missing their tour bus pickups because the shuttles were late or lost. Apparently this happens almost every year. We are going again this year (husband caved in) but we will be parking in the downtown lots and NOT depending on their shuttles.