From Cocoa Beach Police Chief
The City of Cocoa Beach is truly a wonderful place to both live and vacation. As a tourist destination, our small town has approximately 2 1/2 million visitors a year while just under 11,500 residents reside here year around. On a normal weekend our numbers swell to two to three times our residential numbers and on a Memorial Day weekend our population can grow even larger than that. It is for this reason that we have a special event ordinance that establishes requirements and safeguards for event organizers that choose Cocoa Beach as their destination of choice to bring people into our community. To protect the public, both residents and visitors alike, the City has to ensure that it has the proper infrastructure in place, primarily from a public safety perspective, before a special event takes place.
The City has successfully been the venue for numerous successful special events such as Thunder on the Beach, Surfing Santas, Cocoa Beach Air Show, and many smaller events. The planning for those events takes weeks or months, depending upon the complexities of the event, to ensure appropriate police, EMT, traffic, trash removal, port a potties, and other necessary services and preparations for a successful and safe event. Following the City’s application process and procedures is required before a special event can be allowed to take place in the City.
