Leominster, MA Special Events & Permits: Parade Permits (2026)

Section 20-10 requires a parade/race permit from the chief of police before anyone may engage in, participate in, aid, form or start a parade, march, procession or organized race, including bicycle races, foot races, marathons and jogging events, on a city street. The application must be filed on police department forms and should be submitted at least fourteen days before the event to allow an orderly review; it carries a nonrefundable fifty-dollar fee payable to the City of Leominster. The traffic department reviews the application and makes an approve-or-deny recommendation to the chief within five days, after which the chief makes the final call and, if approving, schedules a meeting with the organizers to set route changes, street closures and any required police details.

Events in the defined downtown area, bounded roughly by Main and Columbia Streets, Mechanic and Water Streets, and Lancaster and Central Streets among other named intersections, automatically require a police detail whose size the chief sets based on public safety needs, and organizers must notify abutting property owners and managers and install any required temporary no-parking signs. The chief must deny a permit if the event would substantially interrupt traffic, overburden fire, police or ambulance response, interfere with firefighting equipment reaching an emergency, or if the application fee was never paid, and the code carves out funeral processions and government agencies acting within their normal functions from the permit requirement entirely.