This is a practical explainer, not legal advice. Rules can change and your council may interpret details differently, so confirm anything that matters to your event directly with your local licensing authority before you book.
What actually needs a TEN
A Temporary Event Notice (TEN) under the Licensing Act 2003 is needed for a small-scale event that involves selling or supplying alcohol, providing late night refreshment, or putting on regulated entertainment such as amplified music, where the land does not already hold a licence covering that activity (gov.uk, Alcohol licensing). A field with no existing licence that's hosting a party, festival or private event with a bar or a band almost always falls into this, even if the land itself is privately owned.
If your event has none of those three things, no alcohol, no late night food after the relevant hour, and no amplified music or other regulated entertainment, you may not need one at all. Check with the council if you're not sure which category your event falls into.
Whose job it is to apply
The person giving the notice is called the "premises user" and must be 18 or over. That can be the landowner, the event organiser, or whoever is actually running the licensable activity on the day; the Act doesn't assume it's one or the other. Ask the field owner directly whether they'll give the notice themselves, as the people who know their own land and local council, or whether they expect you to do it as the hirer. Get the answer in writing before you commit to the date, since a notice given too late, or not given at all, can mean the council serving a counter notice that stops your event going ahead.
The legal limits, in plain numbers
Straight from the Licensing Act 2003 (section 100A and section 107):
| Limit | What the law says |
|---|---|
| Attendees | Fewer than 500 people on the premises at any one time, including staff and performers. |
| Length | No more than 168 hours (one week) for the whole event period. |
| Notices per premises, per year | No more than 15 temporary event notices for the same premises in a calendar year. |
| Days per premises, per year | No more than 21 days in total covered by temporary event notices for the same premises in a calendar year. |
| Notices per person, per year | Someone with a personal alcohol licence can give up to 50 standard or 10 late notices a year; someone without one, up to 5 standard or 2 late. |
A field hosting several separate small events across a year (weddings, parties, a small festival) needs someone keeping track of how many notices that land has already used, not just the one for your date.
How much notice you actually need to give
A standard TEN must reach the council at least 10 working days before the event starts. A late TEN can be given between 5 and 9 working days before, but comes out of the smaller late-notice allowance in the table above, and some councils may refuse a late notice if there isn't time to process it properly. Either way, this is not a job for the week of the wedding: build it into your planning timeline the same way you'd plan catering or supplier bookings.
Ask the field owner this early, ideally at the same time as your site visit: has a TEN already been used on this land this year, and if so, how many times? It directly affects whether your date can legally go ahead.
What a TEN doesn't cover
A TEN is about alcohol, late night refreshment and regulated entertainment. It is not the same as permission to legally marry on site, which is a separate approval under marriage law, and it is not the same as planning permission or a site licence for camping, which are separate regimes again. Treat the question "can we legally hold our ceremony here" and the question "do we need a TEN for the party after" as two different conversations with two different answers.
Checklist before you commit to the date
- Does your event involve alcohol, late night food, or amplified music or entertainment?
- Who is actually giving the notice: you, or the landowner?
- Has this land already used some of its 15 notices for the year?
- Is your date at least 10 working days out, or are you relying on a late TEN?
- Does the person giving notice already hold a personal licence, and does that change their annual limit?
- Have you checked with your council directly if anything about your event is unusual?
Comparing fields to hire for your event? See field and private hire, then take the field hire checklist to your site visit.
