For Immediate Release: 3/19/2025 4:15 pm
WORCESTER, Mass. – The City of Worcester Cultural Development Division (CDD) announced Wednesday updates to the Special Event Permitting process that include a streamlined application form, improved coordination, and fewer permits and fees.
The updates are consistent with both the municipality's Strategic Plan and Cultural Plan and address feedback received during a robust community engagement effort in 2023 aimed to reduce barriers and streamline the process. A feedback report was issued in February 2024.
As a result, the Special Event Permit Application has been streamlined and will now be used for the Parks Department event permitting process as well. This consolidation and simplification address frustrations heard relative to redundancies and fragmentation. In addition, the Cultural Development Division will provide additional hands-on assistance and coordination to Special Event organizers, as there were requests for a dedicated liaison/point of contact for Special Event organizers.
The CDD also investigated the feasibility of eliminating certain permits and reducing permit fees that have been burdens and barriers to Special Events.
“These enhancements are a major step forward in removing barriers for individuals and groups to host special events in the City of Worcester,” said City Manager Eric D. Batista. “I want to thank our Cultural Development Division for its receptiveness and hard work to simplify the application, removing redundancies and fragmented parts, and identify 18 permits or fees to be eliminated or waived. This is the first step in what will be a continuous process to improve our special event permitting based on user feedback and we look forward to a great event season.”
The following permits are being eliminated as they are not required by state or local law:
With respect to reducing/waiving fees, the following changes are being made:
Special Event charges to recuperate direct costs incurred by the municipality such as Police Details and Parks overtime staffing will not be waived.
Moving forward, the CDD will have a continuous improvement approach to Special Event Permitting and as part of this process, the division will gather further feedback from Special Event organizers to evaluate this year’s changes. It will also continue to pursue options for an integrated, digital application process.
To assist the public with the event permitting process, the CDD will host an optional virtual Special Event information session on Wed. April 9 at 6 p.m. on Zoom. Please register to receive the meeting link.
Interested individuals can learn more information about hosting events on the municipality’s Plan an Event webpage.
