Ankeny, IA Special Events & Permits: Street Fair Rules (2026)

Ankeny's peddler, solicitor and transient merchant licensing chapter otherwise requires anyone selling goods door-to-door, on public streets or multi-use trails to hold a City license (§ 132.03), but § 132.16 carves out nine categories of exclusion from that requirement. Item 9 specifically exempts transient merchants selling goods at a permitted or approved craft fair, vendor show, festival, or similar temporary event, provided sales happen during the event and under the authorization of the event organizer, so the burden of vetting vendors shifts to whoever obtained the event's own permit or approval rather than requiring each vendor to separately license under Chapter 132.

Other exemptions in the same section cover newspaper carriers, civic and service club members (Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, Future Farmers of America), local residents and farmers selling their own produce, students on school-sponsored projects, route delivery persons, persons calling on businesses for resale or institutional purposes, and City-sponsored or community events on City property, plus minors operating an on-site business no more than 89 days a year. Because the exemption applies only to vendors at events that are themselves permitted or approved, a festival organizer still needs whatever event authorization the City otherwise requires (for example under the special events provisions of Chapter 11), and a vendor selling outside the scope or timing of that authorized event loses the exemption and falls back under the general peddler license requirement of § 132.03, with violations enforced as simple misdemeanors or municipal infractions under § 132.19.