Advice on Staging a Temporary Event.

If you are staging a small event where less than 500 people are likely to attend, you may need to apply for a Temporary Event Notice.

This notice will be essential if your event is providing licensable activities i.e. regulated entertainment, sale of alcohol, or hot food or drink for sale (between 23:00 and 05:00 often referred to as ‘late night refreshment’). Please refer to our Guidance notes (GD03) that explains ‘regulated entertainment’

Someone who holds a personal licence will be able to hold up to 50 temporary events a year at premises that are not licensed. Non-personal licence holders will be able to hold up to 5 temporary events a year. A Temporary Event Notice must be given to the council at least 10 clear working days before an event of this sort can be held, and the police and Environmental Health may object to it under the four licensing objectives.

The legislation now allows a limited number of 'late' notices to be served giving between 5 and 9 clear days notice. A personal licence holder may serve up to 10 late notices and a non-personal licence holder up to 2.

The legislation does not allow any discretion to accept the notice with less than 5 clear working days notice.

Individual premises may only hold 15 temporary events per year and the total number of days must be no more than 21.