So We're Planning a Street Fair

Paula and I have planned many parties and events in San Diego, but never before have we done a street fair.  In the spirit of "we'll try anything once," we are planning a street fair.  It's called the SoNo Park Holiday Fest, and we're co-chairing the event with a few other parents from McKinley Elementary in North Park.  The event we'll be on December 5, and we're closing down Thorn Street between Boundary and 32nd to make way for live music, a beer garden, chili cook-off, arts & crafts, kids' activities, and more.  Even if you're not in the South or North Park communities (hence SoNo Park), please join us for a fun time. 

The complexity in putting on a street fair - other than getting people there, paying for it and making it super cool so people will go on about it for weeks - is making sure that you're following all the proper regulations.  In San Diego, as I would expect in most cities, there are a number of steps that you have to go through in order to put on a street fair.  And since we're closing streets, serving beer and food, having bands with electrical gear, and putting up tents, we're hitting on most of the same requirements that would be involved in say, putting on Street Scene.  It doesn't really matter if you're expecting 50x less people, the same rules still apply.  And you still have to deal with a number of different agencies in the city and county to get the necessary permits, approvals and instructions: such as the Office of Special Events, Police, ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control), Vice (police again), Risk Management, Fire, County Health, and Storm Water.

Ok, after realizing the scope of the process and having seen the 100 page guide the city puts out to help you with just the permit process (and it's not all-inclusive mind you), I'm tempted to say "Please don't try this at home," but I won't.  It's all manageable, but it will take time and patience.  I plan to write more on our street fair adventures, but here are some bits of advice from our experience so far. 

1. Start early.  Ideally, you'd start the permit process at least 4 months before your event.  There are a lot of things to get your arms around, and much of the process is iterative while you're learning what you can and can't do.  You may have to change course, and if you start early you can change course before you start marketing or executing something a certain way.  It's all manageable if you have enough time.
2. Review the city's Special Event Guide.  While it doesn't cover every eventually (yes, even in 100 pages), it's still very informative. 
3. Put together a good committee. It is a lot of work to plan a street fair, and getting everything in order for the permits could be a full-time job for a few weeks.  Form a committee a divide up the work.  For example, here's how you could divide up the permit work:
• One person on point overseeing everything
• Site map, fire lanes, occupancy and building requirements (for structures, electrical, etc.)
• Security, barricades, signage and traffic control
• Trash, recycling, port-a-potties, and storm water requirements
• Beer garden or alcohol space (if you have one) to work with Alcoholic Beverage Control and Vice, any training required for servers (yes, training is required if you're not hiring servers)
4. Make sure you're tracking your costs carefully.  Many of the city requirements will put additional cost burdens on your event.  It's important to keep track of these as they can add up to a few thousand dollars.  You don't want to end up surprised that you're over budget on your event because you didn't factor them in.  
5. Be flexible. Don't get locked in on your plans until you've understood all of requirements.  Some may force you to change... you may have to move things to allow for a fire lane, need additional security, or need health department permit for participating food vendors.
6. Form relationships.  The people on the other side of this process (i.e., the city people) may seem like bureaucrats whose job it is to make your life harder, but they are just normal people doing a job.  They will try to weed out people who aren't serious about planning a proper event, but if you are polite, ask good questions, and show that you want to do things the right way.  There's a forum that the Special Events department puts on where you can go meet these folks in person, which I highly recommend. You'll find out that they really want to help as you work your way through the process. 

It'll seem intimidating at first, but if you invest the time the first year, you might put on a killer event - and they say it gets easier every year.  Good luck!