New Orleans, LA Special Events & Permits: Street Fair Rules (2026)

Section 110-259 requires anyone who wants to use public streets, sidewalks, public places or private business premises for a regulated calling to obtain a permit from the Department of Finance first. The permit names the occasion it covers and its expiration date, and it sits on top of any other tax or license the permittee owes. Street fair and festival sellers land mostly in Class B, which covers selling goods at an entertainment or athletic event where the sales are secondary to the event's main purpose, or Class C, which covers trade shows open to the public, with or without admission, where retail sales take place. A Class C permit also covers the retail activity of the organizer's subcontractors (lessees). Classes A through D each cost $500.00 per location, per event.

Social Aid and Pleasure Club occasional vendors are Class E. They sell prepared food, cooked food or non-food artifacts at a parade backed by a police department parade permit, or at a special event where the club holds a promoter license and a mayoralty permit, and they pay $25.00 per vendor, per year. Section 110-259(d) adds a property check: no special event permit issues for a site without an occupational license until the city confirms the property is free of outstanding property taxes, final administrative judgments and municipal liens.

Applications go to the director of Finance at least 30 days before sales begin and must be sworn (section 110-260). The permit expires at 12:00 midnight on the last day of the event and must be posted conspicuously, and a vendor working more than one event or place needs a separate permit and fee for each (section 110-261). Permits are nontransferable (section 110-270).

Each applicant other than a vendor under contract with a promoter must deposit $10,000.00 or post a performance bond for that amount to secure tax remittances (section 110-262). A promoter with contracts for three or more vendors posts a bond of $500.00 per vendor, no less than $10,000.00 and no more than $20,000.00. Free-admission events with fewer than 35 vendors and no more than two food or retail vendors accepting cash skip the bond (section 110-264(f)). Nonprofits and artists and craftsmen selling their own work still need the permit but pay no fee.