No certificate, no pitch. Usually decided the week of the show.
No market, festival or convention will assign you a space without a certificate. We issue them for traders, concessionaires and exhibitors.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What event vending businesses actually need.
Event liability
General liability for a single event or a season of them. It is the coverage a venue, park or municipality requires, naming them, before they will confirm the booking.
Without it — The organizer, the venue and often the landowner all named, before you are allocated a pitch.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — An annual policy covers every show rather than a certificate per event, and it is where products liability for anything you sell or sample sits.
Inland marine & equipment
Tools, equipment and property in transit. It picks up exactly where commercial property stops, which is the moment the item leaves the building.
Without it — Stock, stall, equipment and a vehicle full of both, all of it away from any premises.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — Getting to the show with the stock aboard is business use whatever the vehicle is.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Casual help on the stall are employees in most states, however briefly.
Businesses like this one, with their own page.
Every one of these is written for that specific operation — the coverages it needs, the questions underwriters ask it, and what it usually gets wrong.
- DJs and Mobile Entertainers
A working DJ signs a venue agreement for nearly every booking, and nearly every one asks for general liability with the venue named on the certificate. That is the policy most DJs buy first. The second is the one that matters after a bad night: the rig itself, stolen from the van or dropped on the load-out, is inland marine, and no venue asks for it. We place both for mobile DJs, wedding and corporate entertainers, and small production companies, on an annual policy or, for the occasional gig, per event.
- Bands and Touring Musicians
A working band is a small touring business: gear worth more than the van it rides in, contracts with venues that require proof of liability, and a crew of members and hired hands who get hurt loading in. The insurance is general liability for the venues, an instrument and equipment floater for the gear, and auto for the van, and the first two are inexpensive enough that most bands buy them the first time a festival asks. We place them for bands, solo artists, small touring acts and the production companies that grow out of them.
What the insurance company will ask about your event vending business
We read the applications the markets use for businesses in this field and pulled out what they actually ask. Have these answers ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week, because nobody has to come back to you for the missing piece.
About the business
- What is your business name, DBA if different, and location address?
- What type of catering operation do you run: banquet hall, bartending service, off-premises catering, or concessionaire at a venue?
- What form of business are you: individual, corporation, partnership, LLC, trust, or other?
- What year did you start doing business at this location?
- How many years of experience do you have owning or managing a catering business?
How you operate
- What state are most of your jobs located in?
- Will you ever do business in Alabama, Alaska, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Rhode Island, or West Virginia?
- What is the latest hour you operate?
- What is the latest time an event will end?
- Do you sell, serve, or provide alcohol at events?
Safety and controls
- Are all employees who serve alcohol certified or trained to do so?
- Are only you and your authorized employees permitted to serve alcohol, or do clients hire their own servers?
- If independent contractors serve alcohol at your events, do you require them to carry their own liquor liability coverage and name you as an additional insured?
- Are employees permitted to drink alcohol during their work hours?
- Do you offer happy hours or drink specials, and if so, what times and pricing?
Your history
- Have you ever had a liquor liability claim, assault claim, or battery claim? If yes, provide dates, descriptions, amounts paid, and current status.
- Has your liquor liability coverage ever been cancelled or not renewed? If yes, please explain.
- Have you been cited or fined for a liquor law violation? If yes, provide the date, description, and steps you took to prevent it from happening again.
- Have you had any foreclosures, bankruptcies, or unpaid tax judgments in the last five years?
Money and people
- What are the insurance limits you need for each claim and in total?
- What are your annual food receipts if on-premises, annual alcohol receipts if on-premises, or annual alcohol receipts if off-premises?
- Do you have a valid liquor license, and if so, what is the license number?
Have these ready
- Your valid liquor license and license number, if you sell or serve alcohol
- Your last five years of claims history from your current insurer, called loss runs
- Any documentation showing the training or certification of employees who serve alcohol
You answer what you can; a licensed agent fills the rest with you.
What our event vending clients ask us.
Annual policy or per event?
Annual, if you do more than three or four shows a year, and it is usually cheaper by a wide margin. It also solves the real problem, which is timing: organizers ask for certificates at short notice and per-event coverage has to be arranged each time, so an annual policy turns a scramble into an email. Blanket additional insured wording lets you name each organizer as their date comes.
We sell food. Does that change things?
Substantially. Product liability becomes the main exposure rather than a footnote, because the claim arrives days later and away from the event. Cooking equipment, gas, hot oil and temporary structures add their own, and some organizers set higher limits for food traders specifically. Say what you cook and how; a page of specifics prices far better than "food vendor".
The organizer says we are covered by their policy. Are we?
No. Their policy covers their event and their own negligence. As a vendor you are a separate business, and their contract almost certainly requires you to carry your own coverage and to indemnify them. If somebody tells you otherwise, get it in writing. They are usually being casual about a question they have not checked.
What does a event vending insurance application ask for?
The applications for event vending businesses ask about 4 things above all: what is your business name, dba if different, and location address; what state are most of your jobs located in; are all employees who serve alcohol certified or trained to do so; have you ever had a liquor liability claim, assault claim, or battery claim? if yes, provide dates, descriptions, amounts paid, and current status. Have your valid liquor license and license number, if you sell or serve alcohol and your last five years of claims history from your current insurer, called loss runs ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.