Findings.
Riverside Municipal Code § 13.21.020
in effect13.21.020 - Findings.
The City recognizes that Street Performers are afforded rights related to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. The City also recognizes that the current climate of the country is such that the general public is operating at a heighted state of alert in large crowds. The City desires to enhance the safety of the City's residents, businesses and visitors by implementing safe areas at the festival for Street Performers during the times when the festival experiences the largest crowds.
At the Switch on Ceremony and on High Traffic Days of the festival, the Pedestrian Mall is often extremely crowded with pedestrian traffic. It is crucial to the continued interest of the community for the City to safeguard this area with reasonable restrictions and regulations to ensure the health, safety and welfare of individuals during the festival.
The existence of Street Performers at the festival provides a public amenity that enhances the character of the festival and the City seeks to encourage such performances in a manner consistent with the public's overall safety. Street performers seek to and do draw large crowds to their performances. This can create serious safety problems by impacting the ability of individuals to move safely on sidewalks in high pedestrian traffic areas in that street performers attract large stationary crowds which have a tendency to block passageways and impede the path of travel. For example, on the Pedestrian Mall, street performers on highly attended Festival evenings, attract audiences that congest the area, and increase the likelihood for conflict and disorderliness.
The City's police and fire departments have made great efforts to provide access to the areas surrounding the Mission Inn and the Pedestrian Mall in an effort to ensure the public's safety at the festival. The ability to limit street performers on the days the festival experiences the largest crowds ultimately assists public safety personnel by allowing critical access to the streets surrounding the Mission Inn and the Pedestrian Mall.
Due to the unusually large crowds on this day, travel is inhibited not only for pedestrians, but also for public safety personnel needed to provide safety and emergency response. The Police Chief and Fire Chief have found that audiences attracted by street performers contribute to impeding the ability of emergency response personnel to respond to critical incidents.
During the festival, public safety personnel are patrolling the Pedestrian Mall on bicycles, ATV's, vehicles and by foot. At any given time, safety personnel need to have the ability to deploy all or a portion of their resources in case of an emergency or fire. Large crowds could potentially limit public safety's ability to mitigate an incident before it escalates.
The past presence of street performers on the days and nights when the largest crowds attend the festival has caused a hazard and danger to the residents, business owners and visitors to the festival. The mass congestion caused by the street performers and their audience impedes pedestrian traffic and ingress and egress from businesses and which could create an impedance to pedestrian traffic flow in cases of emergency which could, in turn, cause injury to persons and property.
Street performers and their equipment may impede the ingress and egress of emergency and public safety vehicles on the Pedestrian Mall by creating physical obstacles to emergency response and administration of aid to those in need of immediate medical attention and to victims of criminal activity. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure that street performers congregate in less congested areas than the pedestrian mall on high traffic days to avoid interference with emergency response vehicles that provide assistance to individuals with medical needs and victims of criminal activity. These designated areas, however, will be within the FOL Boundaries and located proximate to any prohibited area.
Established federal and state law allows municipalities to regulate the time, place, and manner of speech and other forms of expression where such regulations are narrowly tailored, content-neutral, and leave open ample alternative channels of communications for street performers desiring to display expressive activities in proximate performance areas where street performers may reasonably reach their intended audience.
The City desires to balance the freedom of speech and freedom of expression protections afforded by United States and state constitutions to those street performers desiring to engage in expressive activities at the festival that is intended to or has the effect of gathering large crowds and audiences with protected and significant governmental interests related to traffic and sidewalk congestion, pedestrian safety, aesthetics, the ability of emergency response personnel to reach locations, limiting access to and egress from business and residences, and other interests to ensure smooth pedestrian traffic flow, relieve congestion and overcrowding, limit disorderliness, and prevent potential interference with and visibility obstruction for motorists attempting to navigate through the streets within the FOL boundaries during the festival. It is the intention of the City to balance these regulations and governmental interests with the recognized rights to street performers to exercise their rights of free speech and expression to their intended audience.
The reasonable and content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions outlined herein that apply to certain conduct on the Pedestrian Mall will be effective, are narrowly tailored to address the governmental interests outlined herein, and constitute the least restrictive alternative for the purposes intended and set for herein.
The City acknowledges that street performers may intend to reach a particular audience during the festival and the City Council desires that such street performers be afforded an ample opportunity to engage in expressive activities during the festival to ensure that messages and performances can be conveyed to the street performers intended audience.
By enacting this ordinance, the express public policy and purpose of the City shall continue to be the protection and preservation of the public health, safety and welfare of the City's residents, business owners and visitors who attend the festival while still providing reasonable and meaningful alternate avenues, areas and access for street performers by allowing performances anywhere within the FOL boundaries, except on the days and times defined herein as high traffic days.
The City therefore finds, that in order to ensure the safety of the residents, businesses and visitors to the festival, it is necessary to prohibit street performers from performing on the Pedestrian Mall on high traffic days.
(Ord. 7394 § 2, 2017)
Source: City of Riverside, California, Municipal Code and City Charter (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/ca/riverside/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_TIT13STSITRTR_CH13.21FELIRE_13.21.020FIFetched: 11/1/2026