The Safety and Licensing Committee met 08/27/2025. One of the action items they took up was a request to approve the special event application for the World Peace Festival scheduled to be held in Pierce Park on 09/13/2025. The application had been administratively denied because it was submitted 25 days before the event, but the city’s Special Events Policy requires special event permit applications to be submitted at least 45 days prior to an event. The applicant was requesting a waiver to the 45-day deadline and approval of the permit.
The committee voted 5-0 to recommend approval of the special event permit for the World Peace Festival.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Last year, the Common Council approved a new Special Events Policy that created one application deadline of 45 days before an event for all events regardless of the event size. This new policy went into effect January 1st of 2025.
This will be the third year the World Peace Festival has taken place in Appleton. The event organizer had reserved the pavilion in Pierce Park but had not been aware of the new Special Events Policy or the requirement for an event permit. The city did reach out to the World Peace Festival on August 4 and let them know that they needed to submit an application for a special event permit; however, the city based the timing of its communication on the fact that last year the festival had been held on September 21. This year, however, the event is scheduled for 09/13/2025. As a result, there was not time for the organizers to submit an application within the deadline.
The World Peace Festival is not the first event this year that has run into issues with the new permitting deadline. The Summer Shootout soccer tournament missed the 45-day deadline by 6 days and also had to request special approval from the Safety and Licensing Committee and the Common Council which the committee and Council were happy to provide.
In the case of the World Peace Festival, the committee, again, granted approval of the special event permit, pending approval by various city departments. The application had been reviewed by the First, Police, Risk, Health, Parks and Recreation, and Public Works departments, all of which signed off on it. They were now only waiting on approval from Valley Transit which had not had an opportunity to review the application yet, but no issues were anticipated.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) commented that she was inclined to approve the application given that the city was in the first year of the new Special Events Policy being in place and event organizers of recurring events had not all been aware of the change in policy. She did not, however, want people to assume that two years from now the committee and Council would be willing to approve special event permits that were submitted in an untimely manner.
The committee voted 5-0 to recommend the World Peace Festival’s special event permit be approved.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1308970&GUID=821D8226-556C-4CC8-B989-73213FC48425
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