Huntsville, AL Filming & Production: Location Permits (2026)

Chapter 23, article VI of the Huntsville Code regulates organized events on public property, and Sec. 23-231(e) carves out a category called "private events" that includes several kinds of restricted-access gatherings, from parties and religious observances to "[l]ocation shoots or tapings of films, photographs, commercials, or other similar audio or videotaped events." Classifying a production this way matters because Sec. 23-231(e)(2) confirms that a private event can limit access or admission to only those invited, meaning a film crew can close a public sidewalk, park, or street segment to the general public for the duration of a shoot rather than accommodating bystanders as it would for an open public event.

That private classification does not exempt a production from the underlying permit system. Sec. 23-231(a) still requires "all organized events conducted on a public area" to obtain a special event permit, except minor events, and bars anyone from knowingly participating in a permit-required event before a permit issues. Sec. 23-231(e)(3) adds one limit on the private designation: treating a shoot as a private event does not convert the public space into private premises for purposes of the city's open-container law in chapter 3, so a production cannot use its private-event status to allow drinking on a city street or sidewalk that would otherwise be illegal. Because Sec. 23-202(a) exempts events that stay entirely on private property from this article altogether, a film shoot confined to a private lot needs no city event permit at all; the moment it spills onto a public street, sidewalk, or park, or requires city event services, the permit and private-event rules of Sec. 23-231 apply.