Short term licences for permanent licence holders affected by COVID-19
Existing liquor licence holders may benefit from a number of free, short term licences developed for business affected by COVID-19. More information is available on the CBS website.
For all other short term licences, continue reading below.
Short term licence cancellations
If your event has been cancelled due to COVID-19, you can apply for a refund of your short term licence application fee.
When you need a short term licence
You need a short term liquor licence to sell, supply or permit the consumption of liquor:
- at an event or function from which you will derive a commercial or financial benefit
- on a regulated premises, even if you don't derive any commercial or financial benefit.
If you intend to hold regular or recurring events you may want to consider applying for a short term (five year) licence instead.
You don't need a liquor licence when holding an event or function on private premises where you are supplying liquor but are not deriving a commercial or financial benefit. For example, you don't need a liquor licence to host a birthday party at home where you're providing alcohol or alcohol is being consumed but not being sold.
The host or person organising the event needs to apply for the licence.
Existing licence holders who want to change or extend their trading hours or trading area for an event can apply.
Licence summary
Each event will be placed into a class, depending on how you want to trade. All licensees must comply with the general code of practice.
Class 1
- can only go for one day
- can only trade until midnight
- can't have more than 200 people at the event at any one time
- can't have prescribed entertainment
Class 2
- can go for one or more days in duration
- can only trade until 2.00 am
- can't have more than 1,200 people at the event at any one time
- can't have prescribed entertainment
Events that are restricted to direct sales transactions only - eg online or by mail order - are also categorised as Class 2.
Class 3
- can go for one or more days in duration
- can trade at any time
- can have more than 1,200 people at the event at any one time
- can have prescribed entertainment (if approved)
- a responsible person must be present at all times
- all persons involved in the sale or supply of liquor must have completed responsible service of alcohol training
- must comply with the late night code of practice where applicable
Variations to a short term licence
You can apply to vary the conditions on your licence but you can't apply for a variation:
- that would place your short term licence in a different class
- to change the premises address
- to change who the licensee is
- to change the licensed area.
To make these types of changes you would need to cancel your existing licence and reapply.
If you think you may need to move your event to a different area of the premises - eg due to weather - you should consider applying for both areas to be licensed as you will not be able to change the area once the licence is granted.
Optional additions
You will need to apply for prescribed entertainment consent if your event will have entertainment that:
- is sexually explicit
- involves boxing or martial arts.
Only Class 3 events can host prescribed entertainment.
What you'll need
All classes
You'll need to provide:
- details of your function and a description of how liquor will be served
- a plan of the licensed area in one of these formats (unless your licence is for direct sales transactions only):
- a floorplan of the venue with the licensed area outlined in red
- for large outdoor events you can lodge a satellite image - eg from Google maps - of the premises with the licensed area outlined in red on the image.
Class 1 and 2 events
For class 1 and 2 events, you'll need to decide who you want to nominate as your persons in charge of the event.
Class 3 events
For class 3 events you will need to have a responsible person present at all times.
For class 3 events, you'll also need to provide a copy of your management plan.
Contact CBS Liquor and Gaming
Email: shortterms@sa.gov.au
Phone: 131 882
Post: GPO Box 2169
Adelaide SA 5001
