Miami Beach, FL Special Events & Permits: Street Fair Rules (2026)

Sec. 82-1(a) makes it unlawful for anyone to sell, rent, or offer to sell or rent any merchandise, product, goods or service on a public street, avenue, alley, park, beach, structure, building or other city-owned property, with the narrow exception of newspapers of general circulation. Subsection (b) extends the ban to commercial business operators who conduct any part of a sale, rental or service transaction, including passenger transport, at a city park, boat ramp such as the Barry Kutun ramp at Maurice Gibb Memorial Park, beach or other city property; a transaction counts if any direct, indirect or incidental part of it touches city property.

Vendors at a street fair or festival can only lawfully operate under one of the exemptions in subsection (c): city employees acting on the city's behalf, persons the city manager specifically authorizes to render a minimal-impact, outdoor fee-based service, a commercial operator working under a written agreement with the city, or artists exhibiting their own work at a commission-authorized art show. In practice, a street fair's food and merchandise vendors are only legal if the event's special events permit process, or a separate written agreement, brings them within one of these exemptions; the underlying prohibition is otherwise strict.

Enforcement is split: violations of the core sales ban in subsections (a) and (b) are punished under the general penalty provision in Sec. 1-14, while violations of the subsection (c) exemption conditions carry their own escalating civil fines and are enforced by the police department, code compliance department, or the parks and recreation department.