Throwing a party in Atlanta and wondering whether the city needs to hear about it? Good news: plenty of gatherings need nothing filed at all, though hosting a crowd, putting up a tent or plugging in a generator for the caterer changes the answer and changes what you’re allowed to set up.
Below you’ll find how Atlanta sorts events, which rules follow your rentals into a city park, and which office to call with each question.
- Does the Mayor’s Office of Special Events Need to Hear From You?
- Assembly, Outdoor Festival, or Large Gathering
- What Atlanta’s Park Use Rules Let You Rent
- Serving Alcohol in Atlanta
- Atlanta’s Sub-Permits, by What You Rented
- The Atlanta Properties MOSE Does Not Permit
- Questions for MOSE and the Parks Office
- MOSE, the Bureau of Buildings, and Atlanta Police Special Operations
- Planning an Event in Atlanta?
Does the Mayor’s Office of Special Events Need to Hear From You?
Most large gatherings on private property do not require an event permit, which is the city’s own wording and covers a lot of backyard birthdays and graduation parties.
The Mayor’s Office of Special Events, MOSE for short, permits outdoor events in Atlanta, and a short set of triggers pulls you into their system:
- 75 or more people, for an hour or more
- Any spillover onto public space, a sidewalk or a street included
- A stage put up on site
- A tent 10×10 or larger
- Vending, alcohol, or anything needing city services
See your event on that list? Start with MOSE, since everything else follows from it.
Assembly, Outdoor Festival, or Large Gathering
Atlanta runs three outdoor event permits, and which one you file turns on how many people come, how far you travel, and what you bring.
- Assembly. An event meeting two of three conditions: more than 74 attendees, a moving portion lasting more than an hour, or a route covering more than two blocks of city street, sidewalk or park.
- Outdoor festival. An event hitting all three: 250 or more attendees on public property (500 or more on private), entertainment, vending or alcohol, and temporary structures.
- Large gathering. More than an hour and more than 75 attendees, with neither of the other two fitting.
Ask MOSE which one you’re on, what it costs and how far ahead they need it, since those three answers set your calendar.
What Atlanta’s Park Use Rules Let You Rent
Atlanta’s park rules do more than tell you whether to file: they tell you what you may set up once you arrive, and four of them land straight on a rental order.
- No floors. A structure in a park may not have a floor, with a couple of named city sites excepted, so a dance floor or a subfloor under your tent is out at a typical park.
- No more than two opaque sides. You may add sides past that only if the extra ones open so at least two-thirds of the tent becomes non-opaque and only if they’re fastened open, with mesh counting as non-opaque.
- Nothing goes into the ground. Driving stakes, posts or poles, or digging holes to put up a tent or a stage, needs the Parks Commissioner’s written permission. Plan on weights holding your tent down.
- 12 feet between tents.
Book a fully walled frame tent with a dance floor for a Piedmont Park birthday and you’ve broken three of those before the first guest arrives.
Read the same rules for more that touches what you rent:
- Parks close at 11:00 at night and open at 6:00 in the morning, so setup and load-out both have to finish inside that window.
- No amplified music without a special permit, which reaches every DJ and speaker you were planning on.
- Moonwalks, dunk tanks and anything running on independent power need a special permit, and inflatables and water amusements are barred outright except during a permitted event.
- Nothing flammable goes inside a tent without a Fire permit.
- No non-permeable ground covering, so plywood and tarps stay off the grass; chairs and coolers are fine.
- No glass containers, and no smoking or vaping.
Their list runs longer than that, so read the park use rules against your setup before you book anything.
Serving Alcohol in Atlanta
Two layers apply, and the city one comes first.
In a city park, alcohol needs a special permit, and selling it is barred outright. That is a park rule in its own right, so it holds even when your state paperwork is in order. Ask Parks whether your specific site allows a drink at all before you plan a bar into the layout.
The state layer runs through Georgia’s Department of Revenue, which publishes a special event permit with a non-profit route and a for-profit one. Its own page does not say who qualifies for the second, so ask the department which fits your event before you assume either.
If alcohol is on your MOSE application it will pull in a sub-permit too, so raise it with them in the same conversation as the rest of your setup.
Atlanta’s Sub-Permits, by What You Rented
Once MOSE has your main application, your equipment picks up permits of its own, all filed with MOSE except electrical, which goes to the Bureau of Buildings Electrical Division.
Tents and canopies. A Fire Tent Permit covers anything larger than 10×10. It also covers multiple 10×10 tents spaced closer than 12 feet apart, so splitting one big tent into several small ones doesn’t get you out of it. That 12-foot figure turns up in two separate Atlanta sources, the park rules and the tent sub-permit trigger, which makes it the number to lay your site out around.
Stages and platforms. A stage 10×10 or larger needs a Temporary Structures permit. At 200 square feet or larger the plans have to be stamped by a Georgia-licensed architect or engineer, so ask your supplier who produces those drawings and how long they take. A mobile stage with current vehicle registration is exempt.
Generators. Any gas or electric generator puts you into an electrical permit, filed directly with the Bureau of Buildings. A generator of 5,000 watts or larger can only be permitted by a licensed electrician, and an on-site inspection is often part of it. Ask whoever supplies yours whether they hold that license and who does the filing.
Street and lane closures. Closing a street or a lane goes to Atlanta Police Special Operations, and the department also wants a POST-certified security coordinator attached to your event.
Read MOSE’s full sub-permit list against your rental order before you file. Outdoor festivals and large gatherings also need a site plan drawn to approximate scale, with every tent and structure shown in place and dimensioned; a screenshot of a map gets rejected.
Still working out the equipment budget? Our Atlanta rental pricing guide covers what local gear runs.
The Atlanta Properties MOSE Does Not Permit
Seven city properties sit outside MOSE’s permitting altogether, and each one books and approves its own events:
- Chastain Amphitheater
- Chastain Horse Park
- Atlanta Botanical Garden
- Zoo Atlanta
- Piedmont Park Multipurpose Complex and Magnolia Hall
- Underground Atlanta
- Centennial Park
Booking one of these? Ask the venue what its own rules say about tents, floors, power and alcohol, since the park rules above belong to the city and may not be theirs. Our guide to event venues in Atlanta covers spaces outside the city’s park system.
Questions for MOSE and the Parks Office
Ask these before you sign a rental contract:
- Which of the three permits am I on, what does it cost, and how far ahead do you need it?
- Does my tent need the Parks Commissioner’s written permission, and who applies for it?
- Can anything go into the ground at this park, or am I on weights?
- How many opaque sides may my tent have here, and does mesh count toward the two-thirds?
- If my canopies sit 12 feet apart, does the layout still need a Fire Tent Permit?
- Is my stage big enough to need stamped drawings, and who produces them?
- How many watts is the caterer’s generator, and does it need a licensed electrician?
- Who is allowed to draw the site plan, and what has to appear on it?
- What does the special permit for amplified music allow, and how late does it run?
- Is alcohol allowed at this site at all, even with a special permit?
MOSE, the Bureau of Buildings, and Atlanta Police Special Operations
- Mayor’s Office of Special Events. Whether you need a permit and which of the three you file, on its does my event require a permit page, with every sub-permit but one on its sub-permit applications page.
- Atlanta Parks and Recreation. Park bookings, plus staking, tent sides, floors, amplified music and alcohol, on the park use rules and guidelines page.
- Bureau of Buildings, Electrical Division. Generator and temporary power permits, filed directly with the bureau; MOSE’s sub-permit page names the division and the route to it.
- Atlanta Police Department, Special Operations. Street and lane closures, and the POST-certified security coordinator that comes with one; MOSE’s sub-permit page points you there.
- Georgia Department of Revenue, Alcohol and Tobacco Division. State special event alcohol permits, on its non-profit page and its for-profit page.
- The seven venues above. Each takes its own bookings, so go to the venue.
Planning an Event in Atlanta?
Atlanta’s park rules reach your rental order before they reach your paperwork, so settle what you’re setting up first and the permit calls get short.
Reventals makes that side simple in Atlanta. Order a 10×10 pop-up canopy and space your canopies to clear the 12-foot rule, put a dance floor on ground where the rules allow one, and add tables and chairs that no park rule keeps off the grass, all in one request.
