Do you need a permit for your event on Long Island? Plenty of parties don’t, and the ones that do are easier to sort out once you know where to start. In this blog, we’ll go over what usually starts the permit conversation, how tent permits work across Nassau and Suffolk, and the rules that come with parks and beaches.
We’ll also cover the questions to ask before you book and which offices to call for what. With a little groundwork, you’ll be ready to plan a great Long Island celebration!
- Who Needs an Event Permit on Long Island?
- Tent Permits on Long Island
- Event Rules in Long Island State and County Parks
- Permits for Beach Parties and Fire Island Events
- What to Ask Before You Book
- Who to Call on Long Island
- Planning an Event on Long Island?
Who Needs an Event Permit on Long Island?
A lot of celebrations don’t need a permit at all. Dinner in a restaurant’s private room, a shower at a catering hall that holds its own licenses, or a backyard party at your own home without a tent usually doesn’t start a permit conversation.
What usually starts one is putting up a tent, booking a park or a beach, or serving alcohol at a public site.
From there, the first thing to find out is whose ground you’re on. Nassau County’s own directory lists its towns, two cities, and dozens of incorporated villages inside those towns. Each of those can have its own rules. Suffolk adds its own towns and villages, plus Town Trustees who control beaches on the East End and federal seashore land on Fire Island.
Take the tent permit, the one a backyard party is most likely to need. Depending on the address, it can come from the Nassau County Fire Marshal, a town fire marshal, a village’s own fire prevention office, a town building department, or, in a state or county park, a separate engineering or fire office. Once you know who owns the ground, the list of offices to call gets much shorter.
Tent Permits on Long Island
If you’re putting up a tent in Nassau, the County Fire Marshal’s tent application covers a few things that can change your order:
- Tents set close together: Tents that are connected, or set within a certain distance of each other, count as one tent. Splitting one big tent into a few smaller ones won’t necessarily keep you clear of a permit.
- Sidewalls: A smaller tent is treated differently once its sidewalls cover enough of the edges. Adding walls for wind or rain can be what makes a small tent need a permit, so if there’s any chance you’ll want them, put them on the application from the start.
- Cooking: A tent with cooking under it counts as a cooking tent, with its own spacing rules. If your caterer is grilling or keeping food hot on site, settle where that happens before you finalize the layout.
- Paperwork: Every tent, sidewall and canvas section needs a flame-proofing certificate, and the permit stays on site, attached to the tent. Using propane in or near the tent means a separate propane report, so mention it if you’re planning propane heaters.
If you’re still sizing the tent and everything that goes under it, our Long Island rental pricing guide walks through the rest of the order.
In the Town of Southampton, the homeowner has to sign too. The Town of Southampton’s tent permit application needs the property owner to sign a landowner’s endorsement in front of a notary, and the Village of Quogue asks for the same under its own code. If the house belongs to an LLC, trust or estate, there are extra forms showing who’s allowed to sign.
For a party at a rented summer house, the homeowner still has to sign before a notary, even though you’re the one hosting, so loop them in as soon as a tent is part of the plan. Southampton’s fire prevention FAQ says the tent company usually files the application.
Event Rules in Long Island State and County Parks
New York State Parks publishes group picnic rules for its Long Island parks, and they’re worth reading in full before you book. A few that change a party plan:
- Jones Beach and Robert Moses: Neither is available for group picnics.
- The gardens and preserves: Under a group picnic permit, several of them, Planting Fields and Caumsett among them, allow no food or drink at all, not even in your car. They’re lovely for photos, so plan the picnic itself somewhere else. A private event booked through Planting Fields’ own events team is a separate arrangement with its own rules.
- Decorations: Banners and balloons aren’t allowed in the parks.
- Tables: Park tables are for picnicking, so plan on bringing your own folding tables for the food.
- Tents: Above a certain size, a tent needs its own permit from the State Parks engineering office.
Two of the state’s own forms disagree about caterers. The group picnic packet says you can use your choice of caterer at most parks with the park manager’s approval. The park use packet, which covers ceremonies and special events, says outside caterers can’t enter the parks at all. Both are State Parks’ own Long Island packets, so before you book a caterer, find out from the park which application your event falls under.
County parks have their own rules. In Nassau, special events and wedding ceremonies in county parks arrange food, tents and entertainment through the County’s own vendor, with small pop-up tents as the exception. If you’re reserving a picnic area instead, ask the park what you can bring in yourself before you plan the setup. If you’d like to choose every rental, our Long Island event venues guide covers places that leave the setup to you.
Permits for Beach Parties and Fire Island Events
Many East Hampton beaches belong to the East Hampton Town Trustees, a separate governing body with its own special event permit. Their page lists what triggers one, and some of it is small:
- Catering: The event is catered, and the Trustees spell out that “This includes but is not limited to caterers dropping food off to clients in the parking lots.”
- Contractors: A private contractor is working the event.
- Anything on the sand: “This includes chairs and Chuppahs or Arches for wedding ceremonies.”
Beaches inside the Village of East Hampton go through Village Hall instead. The Trustees also say a beach gathering needs a special event permit from the Town, so one beach party can mean two approvals.
Over on the North Shore, beach parking in the Town of Oyster Bay is for residents: a seasonal sticker only works on the resident’s own car, and day entry needs a resident in the vehicle. Guests coming from outside the town can’t park on the host’s sticker, so work out where they’ll park before the invitations go out.
Fire Island National Seashore is National Park Service land. Weddings, gatherings and events on Park Service land need a special use permit. If your party is in one of the island’s communities, ask that community which permits apply.
Driving in the island’s communities is tightly restricted, mostly to contractors, utilities and a small number of year-round residents. Before you book anything, settle with your rental vendor how the tent, tables and food will get there.
What to Ask Before You Book
- Who owns this ground, and which office handles events there?
- Which office issues the tent permit here, and does the tent company file it or do we?
- Will a few small tents set close together count as one, and do sidewalls change whether we need a permit?
- Does the property owner need to sign the tent permit in front of a notary, and who signs if an LLC or trust owns the house?
- Can we bring our own caterer, tables, tent and entertainment, or does this park work with its own vendor?
- Is alcohol allowed here, does it need its own permit or a notarized waiver, and are any of this location’s one-day permits from the State Liquor Authority still open for our date?
- Is whoever’s cooking working from a permitted commercial kitchen?
- Do we need a resident pass to reserve or to park, and can guests from out of town get in?
- Do the DJ, inflatables or other vendors need to be named on the application with their own insurance?
- Can we set up the day before, and do setup and breakdown have to fit inside the permit hours?
Who to Call on Long Island
Start with whoever owns the ground. Your town or village may have its own office on top of these:
- Nassau County Cities, Towns and Villages: Finds which town, city or village a Nassau address belongs to.
- Nassau County Parks: Picnic reservations and event permits in county parks.
- Nassau County Fire Marshal: Tent permits in Nassau.
- Suffolk County Parks: Special events in Suffolk’s county parks.
- New York State Parks: Pavilion and picnic area bookings in the state parks. For permits, call the park itself.
- Town of Southampton Fire Prevention: Tent permits in Southampton Town, including at private homes.
- East Hampton Town Trustees: Events on Trustee beaches.
- New York State Liquor Authority: One-day alcohol permits.
- Nassau County Department of Health and Suffolk County Department of Health Services: Food service at public events.
- Fire Island National Seashore: Events on the seashore.
Planning an Event on Long Island?
Start with who owns the ground. The tent permit, the park rules and the office you end up calling all follow from it, and on Long Island the answer can change from one village to the next.
Once you know what the site allows, the fun part is picking your rentals. Reventals makes that easy, with tents, sidewalls, heaters, tables and chairs to browse and request in one place, and our team working behind the scenes to keep the process smooth.
Browse party rentals on Reventals.
