Frederick County, VA Special Events & Permits: Street Fair Rules (2026)

§ 155-100F of the Frederick County Code creates a separate license track for vendors selling goods, wares or merchandise at a 'festival' as defined in § 86-2, or at any other prearranged event at a single indoor or outdoor location drawing more than 100 people. The tax is a flat $30 per festival or event, nonproratable and nontransferable, so a vendor working three separate festivals in a year owes three separate $30 payments. Before selling, the vendor must register with and be approved by whoever is 'conducting' the event, a term § 155-100G defines to mean organizing, sponsoring, promoting, hosting or otherwise being responsible for the festival or event.

The subsection carves out two groups who do not need this specific $30 license: vendors at flea markets, who are licensed instead under § 155-112's separate flea-market schedule, and vendors who already hold or are required to hold a license under § 155-73 or under the ordinances of one of the county's incorporated towns. The $30 festival license does not replace the meals tax or the state sales and use tax; § 155-100F says expressly that it creates no exemption from either. A nonprofit organizer itself is exempt from the related carnival license under § 155-98D for events up to 10 consecutive days, and vendors participating solely to further that nonprofit's purpose are also exempt from that section's license; that carve-out sits in § 155-98, a different section from the § 155-100F festival-vendor tax.