Seattle Special Event Permitting During COVID-19

Last updated 5/12/2021

City of Seattle Special Event Permitting Update

On January 8, 2021, Governor Inslee issued the "Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery" State recovery plan, which implements a phased approach for reopening by region. As of May 4th, King County is in Phase 3 of the Plan, which allows some public gatherings to resume in a limited capacity. Mayor Jenny Durkan cautiously supports Seattle moving into this Phase and will continue to closely monitor developments with Public Health.

The City of Seattle and Special Events Committee are currently considering Special Event permits for events that meet or exceed current State of Washington and Public Health guidelines, and that do not require assigned SPD public safety or traffic control resources.

Per state requirements, all Special Event Applications must be accompanied by a comprehensive COVID-19 mitigation plan and must assign a dedicated COVID-19 site supervisor responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the plan.

To assist event producers in the development of COVID-19 Health & Action Management Plans, the Special Events office and Committee has published a toolkit which acts as a resource guide, check-list and framework of criteria that should be addressed in the plan.