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Thinking about holding an event in the Kāpiti district?

Temporary events like fairs and festivals help make Kāpiti a vibrant place to be.  

If you are planning to use a public space, park or reserve for your event you may require an Event Permit.  The Event Permit process provides assurance to the Council that activities comply with the necessary requirements and legislation and events are undertaken in a safe manner. A permit also clarifies responsibility and liabilities, secures the facility or space, and minimises disruption and impact on other users of public spaces.

Planning process

If you are planning a public event in Kāpiti, you need to advise us by completing our Temporary Event Application Form.  Depending on the type of event, Council needs to receive the application and supporting documentation no less than 60 days before the event; or 12 weeks for events involving a request for a road closure. 

Think about what other consents, permit and approvals may be required in your initial event planning phase, the information provided on this page will help you understand what else we might require before we issue an event permit. For example, you might need to get a resource consent or alcohol licence, or manage parking, traffic, building, or public health requirements depending on the type of event.

If you’re unsure about what you need to do, get in touch with us early and we'll be happy to help you work it out. 

Your event may need:

A resource consent if the event is not held on Council property and doesn’t meet all of the permitted activity rules and standards of our Proposed District Plan. 

Examples of when a resource consent may be required:

  • The event will be held on land that is not administered by Council
  • The event occurs more than once in a twelve-month period or is being held for more than three consecutive days in duration
  • The event will have amplified sound (PA system, sound system, musical instruments)
  • The event does not meet the vehicle movement and parking standards
  • The event is being held outside the hours of:
  • 7am - 10pm Monday to Thursday
  • 7am - 11pm Friday or Saturday
  • 30am – 10pm Sunday.

A resource consent may also be required for any temporary event if signage for the event doesn’t comply with rules and standards of the Proposed District Plan.

If you think that your event may need a resource consent, we recommend you contact our Duty Planner to discuss as soon as you can.

A Traffic Management Plan may be required if your event:

  • Affects vehicle or pedestrian traffic
  • Increases traffic to a specific area (eg. concerts, sports events)
  • Requires a road or footpath closure (eg. parades or marches).

If a full or partial road closure is required, a Traffic Management Plan should be submitted 60 days prior to the event.  Council is required by law to advertise all road closures.  The cost of road closure advertising is payable by the Applicant/Organiser.

More information on traffic management plans can be found here: Traffic Management Plans (TMPs).

A building consent or exemption from building consent may be required if there any structures erected on the site such as:

  • Tents or marquees over 100m2
  • Stages, decks or platforms over 1.5m high
  • Screens over 3m high
  • Shade sails (canopies) over 50m2
  • Lighting towers.

Requirements often not considered are:

  • Access (configuration of steps, ladders to plant areas, both with handrails)
  • Barriers (safety from falling barriers where the fall height exceeds 1m)
  • Fire (tents and other enclosed spaces particularly where there are large numbers of people, cooking inside or adjacent to other buildings)
  • Access and facilities for people with disabilities (for public events) and
  • Toilet facilities where there are pop up cafés and the like.

Potentially the Council (territorial authority) could give a discretionary exemption from the need to obtain a building consent if the completed building work is assessed as likely to comply with the building code. This is a formal process and requires an application with detailed documentation to be provided to show how the structure will comply with the building code and how the construction on site will be monitored and by whom (is a CPEng engineer supervising?).

You should also get in touch with our building team If your event is being held within a building and this isn’t an established use of the building.  You may also need to provide a fire report for buildings accessed by people.

We are always happy to have a pre-application meeting to discuss proposals. Event organisers need to start the process early enough to get any consents in place prior to the event. There is a statutory timeframe of 20 working days for a building consent but the time in reality is dictated by the quality and completeness of the documentation provided in the application.

For more information on applying for a building consent, visit our building consents page.

Food stall registration may be required if food is to be sold or served at the event.

Anyone selling food at an event needs to register as a food business, and meet the same requirements as other registered food businesses (some exemptions apply).

You’ll find what you need to know about registration requirements, and food safety guidelines on our food stalls page.

A Special Alcohol Licence will be required if you want to sell alcohol at your event.  You will need to complete an application for the type of licence that you need:

  • On-site special licence that allows the sale and supply of alcohol that will be consumed at the event, and/or
  • Off-site special licence allows the sale of alcohol to be taken away and consumed at another place. This licence also allows free samples to be supplied.

Complete and submit the Application for Special Licence along with the required fee at least 20 working days before the event.

A Permit to Operate may be required before an amusement device (merry-go-round or other mechanised ride) may be operated.  All amusement devices must have a certificate of registration issued by Worksafe which is to be displayed in plain view on the device at all times during operation.

Further Information

Waste management at events

Check out tips and resources for planning a zero waste event.

Advertise your event

Eventfinda: The most important thing you can do to advertise your event is to load the details in Eventfinda which is New Zealand's number one event listing website. All of the main Kāpiti Coast event listing websites take feeds from this site, so by listing with Eventfinda your event will appear on many other sites, including our council website and kapiticoastnz.com

Community Noticeboards

Kāpiti Coast District Council has installed ten community noticeboards that may be available to promote your event if certain criteria are met.  To find out more about booking a noticeboard on our Community noticeboards page.

Community venues

Council has a number of buildings available for hire. These buildings provide suitable venues for residents to meet for leisure, recreation, sport, cultural, social, and educational activities.

Find out about our range of venues on our Community venues page.