Hawthorne, CA Noise from Specific Sources: Bar & Nightclub Noise (2026)

Section 5.40.190 makes it unlawful to conduct, show, stage, perform or produce any entertainment between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. in any establishment required to be licensed under § 5.40.050, Hawthorne's dine-and-dance and entertainment permit chapter, except by special written authorization of the chief of police under conditions the chief sets. This curfew sits inside a broader set of operating rules for licensed entertainment venues: § 5.40.150 requires performers to remain on a stage or platform raised at least eighteen inches, or on a duly authorized dance floor, and bars entertainers from mingling informally with patrons during performances.

Section 5.40.160 requires unlocked doors with free ingress and egress while patrons are present, and § 5.40.170 bars any entertainment visible from the street. Section 5.40.180 makes it unlawful for an employee to solicit or accept drinks from customers while working. The same 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. window reappears in § 5.40.200, which bars operating the licensed premises as a private club during those hours, and in § 5.40.220(A), which bars dancing after 2:00 a.m. on Sunday and between 2:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on any other day for permitted dine-and-dance restaurants.

Permit holders must post their permit conspicuously under § 5.40.210, and dine-and-dance operators must post the full set of conduct rules, including a minimum lighting standard of three foot-candles thirty inches above the floor and a ban on same-sex dance partners for hire, immediately next to the permit under § 5.40.220.