Beach Party

It’s $2,500 to Get a Village Permit for a Catered Party This Year

By David Lion Rattiner

If you want to throw a beach party in the Hamptons, you might have to whip out your checkbook big time. Last Tuesday the Southampton Village Board voted to raise the cost of beach party permit fees this summer. In the past, beach parties that have caterers, regardless of size, have cost $250 to have legally with a permit. But Southampton Village has changed this, making the size of the party and whether or not you are a resident, the real indicators as to how much a person needs to dish out to the Village to get approval.

The difference for residents and non-residents and corporations is dramatic. A person who is a resident of the village who wants to throw a party on the beach with 101 or more people will have to pay a total of $350, plus a $500 deposit for beach cleanup.

A non-resident or corporation that wants to do 101-200 people will be charged $2,500 plus the $500 deposit. If you want to go beyond 200, you have to pay $5,000 plus deposit. And if you want a big white tent on the beach, it’s going to cost you a $100 extra fee for one.

So what does this mean when it comes to throwing a catered beach party in Southampton? Well, it means one of two things. Either the big corporations whose C.E.O.’s don’t have houses in Southampton are going to either pay up, or they are going to make friends with a resident willing to throw the party for them.

But the interesting thing to think about is, how far are these permits going to go? And will people try to get around these permits? You can probably count on it.

Almost all of us have sat out on the beach with some food to have a picnic and to enjoy the ocean. You figure that maybe ten people are usually at these things. They don’t have to pay anything as of today to do this, so long as it’s not catered, so a person who is a non-resident who wants to throw a beach party with 50 people or less may try to get out of the $2,500 he or she has to pay by hosting five “separate” parties of ten people each and have the catering company disguise themselves as just part of the party. Haha, what will they do then?

Well, the police force in Southampton will most likely figure out what’s going on and then you’ll get the $2,500 bill in the mail plus a fine. I wouldn’t recommend trying this. But you know somebody will.

Let’s say that you are not going to do this and you are going to do everything by the book and plan on throwing a party as a non-resident with fewer then 50 people, pay your permit fees, and then it rains on your party one hour after it starts. Well then you are in a real pickle. Paying $2,500 for a party in the rain certainly might upset the guests. Can you ask for your money back on account of rain?

Now this is a realistic one. What happens when you plan on throwing a party with less then fifty people and only ten people show up to the party because there was some other event that was planned on the same day that simply could not be missed. Do you still have to pay then? Well the answer is that you do. Alternatively however, if you throw a party expecting less then 50 and more then 50 show up, well you just better pray that a police officer doesn’t start counting heads.

The reason for all of these permits is to raise revenue for the town of Southampton. So it makes you wonder what they will come up with next in order to raise revenues. Maybe a fee will get passed for non-catered parties. This would make everybody that wants to go to the beach and have a bar-b-que a party planner. Or maybe if you want to walk around town with a group of five people or more, you’ll have to pay a permit. Want to go surfing? Well, you’re going to have to stop by the village and fill out an application. Want to drive in the village of Southampton? Well you better get down to the village in order to get your Village of Southampton roads sticker.

Of course I’m just joking, but how far away are we from things like this? $2,500 for a beach party with less then 50 people seems like an awful lot if you ask me.

We all want to go to the beach and enjoy everything about it, we just don’t want everybody else to go there and screw it up for us.