Do I need Planning Permission for my event? Festivals, theatre, temporary structures or other events for more than 28 days.
Whilst many event organisers and promoters will be aware of licensing requirements for delivering small and large scale events, fewer will be aware of the applications and process for Planning Permission which is sometimes required.
Planning Permission is the process by which decisions can be made about the use of a particular building or site. Generally speaking (although there are some caveats) you can use a site for up to 28 days under ‘permitted development’ for a use other than the one which it currently being used… this gets complicated when you are on or near Sites of Special Scientific Interest or Scheduled Monuments, or near listed buildings (called the curtilage of a building) but for now lets keep things simple.
From the moment you install your first piece of equipment (often your perimeter fence or first trackway panel) your use starts. You then have 28 days for that use before all your equipment and infrastructure needs to be removed. This has been described as ‘fence to fence’.
HOWEVER one consideration is that the 28 days is in any CALENDAR year – so if your event is 20 days, and then (say) 6 months later there is another event of 9 days, you would need Planning Permission.
Another consideration is that you can’t use the first 28 days and then get your Planning Permission and move on from there – once you start, if you know or intend to roll past 28 days then you have to have the Planning Permission in place for the entire duration. And besides – it takes more than 28 days to get Planning Permission in the first place so you have to be organised and thinking ahead.
Now, most events and festivals will be built, used and dismantled in less than the 28 days which are granted under permitted development – however some won’t – or won’t when the cumulative effect of the 28 days in any calendar year is taken into account. There are also dispensations for campsites which allow their use for up to 60 days HOWEVER this is very clearly not for use for festival events.
So, if you’re changing a farmers field to a festival site for more than 28 days in any calendar year, or you’re changing a shop to an exhibition, or you’re changing a film studio or warehouse to an immersive venue… you’re going to need Planning Permission.
This is also the case if you are installing Temporary Demountable Structures which are in place for more than 28 days… fence to fence.
Here at Event Safety Plan we are the UK leaders in Planning Permission for festivals, immersive events, exhibitions, theatre, shows, sporting events and concerts. For corporate events, shows and Temporary Demountable Structures NO-ONE has undertaken more Planning Permission applications than we have – and our team have worked on some of the most complicated Planning Permission projects in the UK – from our friends at Secret Cinema (where we have achieved granted applications since 2017) to Fever Originals, temporary theatre venues for Troubadour Theatres and immersive projects for Exhibition Hub to name a few. We also achieved a unanimous approval for SEEMONSTER – an oil platform turned art installation which brought thousands of people to Weston Super Mare in the summer of 2022.