By Helen Harlan

The City of Sacramento recently created a new entertainment services division designed to be a single point of entry for all entertainment-related permits. 

The Sacramento City Council approved staffing the new division during the adoption of the 2024-25 budget in June. It will fall under the city’s Convention and Cultural Services Department and its director Megan Van Voorhis. 

The move was sparked by the August 2023 release of the city’s Music Census and Regulatory Review, studies that provided city staff working on creative economy issues with the data necessary to make a case for creating the new division. 

“The studies came up with the same thing: We needed to centralize these services. That’s the goal of this [new] office. It’ll include entertainment permits, special event permits and film permits, especially for special events and entertainment,” said Tina Lee-Vogt, the city’s nighttime economy manager. “They’re very similar, but they just happen in different spaces. So by putting them in one office, it’ll be easier for folks to just go to one place.” 

Damian Lynch is an event planner, branding expert and one of the creative minds behind HOF, one of Sacramento’s premier youth-geared entertainment brands. HOF has facilitated several local events, such as HOF Day, billed by HOF as “Sacramento’s biggest party,” and spaces like dance club Tiger and the new Sacramento Roller Rink. 

Lynch has had personal experience dealing with permitting in the city and says much of the red tape has left him frustrated. He said that two such instances were when both HOF Day and the roller rink were initially given hard “Nos” by the city. 

“The permitting process is so complex and so detail-oriented, which it should be,” Lynch said. “But it’s incredibly challenging to go against. It’s a silent battle that a lot of us event planners are fighting. Between the events I’ve seen in this city get greenlit and pushed through, and the events I’ve seen get stifled and die in the cradle, I would argue that millions of dollars have ended up on the table from great events producers that have not been able to do their thing.”

Despite his frustrations, Lynch is optimistic that the new division will indeed streamline the permitting process, benefiting the creative economy and the people who want to enjoy live entertainment and events in Sacramento.

“I know that my HOF team and I have something that this city wants, that the city shows up for,” Lynch said. “If permitting were much easier and more collaborative, it would be worth it.”

Stacey Brown, a singer and DJ who spins at Sacramento Kings games under the name DJ StaceLace, hasn’t dealt with the city and permitting herself but has seen the adverse effects of the old process and the need for change.  

“I know a lot of the people that own and manage clubs and bars deal with a lot from the city. It is very hard to do everything the right way. But if you know the right person, you can get things done very, very quickly,” Brown said. “It affects what the artists get to do. Local businesses employ people. When the city drags its feet, they are actually affecting everyone. I could work more if things weren’t so slow.”

Jim Cornett, the owner of Harlow’s in Midtown and the co-director of the California Capitol Venue Coalition, said that the new division under Van Voorhis, is a step in the right direction. 

“Megan is a wonderful advocate. She understands our needs and how tough it is to be a small venue in town. But we’re still dealing with old ways and old processes that are hard to change,” Cornett said. “This is a big step forward. … It’s just been messy, and now they’re just cleaning it up.”

Cornett said he fears setting up the new division will take a while, but he added that “everything does” in the top-to-bottom process of setting up any event or entertainment space.

Though the city doesn’t have an exact timeline yet, Vogt said they hope to get the new division rolling within the next few months. “We want to make sure we do it correctly,” she said. “We don’t want just to rush it and not have it be set up properly to really support people.”

This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. Solving Sacramento is supported by funding from the James Irvine Foundation and James B. McClatchy Foundation. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19.