Prince George's County, MD Special Events & Permits: Park Event Permits (2026)

Sec. 5-194, dating to a 1914 County law carried forward through the 1963, 1984, and later recodifications, makes it unlawful to hold any picnic, dance, soiree, or other entertainment out of doors in the County, to which the general public are admitted, without first obtaining a permit or license from the Department of Permitting, Inspections, and Enforcement. The requirement is not limited to County-owned park property: it reaches any open-air gathering anywhere in the County that the public may attend, whether a church picnic, a private field rented out for a public dance, or an outdoor concert.

Sec. 5-195 hands DPIE broad discretion to run the permit program, authorizing the Department, subject to County Council approval, to issue licenses and prescribe reasonable rules and regulations in connection with any license issued under Section 5-194 and to require the payment of reasonable fees. That means the exact application form, notice period, and fee schedule are set administratively rather than fixed in the Code text, so an organizer needs to contact DPIE directly to learn current requirements before locking in a date. The Division carries its own penalty section rather than defaulting to the Code's general $5,000 misdemeanor penalty: Sec.

5-196 caps the fine at not more than $25 for each offense, among the lowest fines anywhere in the County Code, reflecting the section's age. Organizers planning a gathering inside an actual County or Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission park still need a separate facility reservation from that agency; Sec. 5-194's permit is the County's general public-gathering license and applies on top of, not instead of, any park-specific reservation.