Street gatherings
A street gathering is a great way to get to know your neighbours and build community spirit. Communities with a high level of connectedness are safer and healthier places to live, as neighbours look out for one another and friendships are formed. Street gatherings are one way to improve your connection with your neighbours.
We encourage residents to host a street gathering and we want to make it easy for neighbours to come together safely. Council can cover the costs and support you along the way to hose your own event.
Council works with hosts in planning their sessions and takes care of the necessary permits and insurances, arranges traffic management plans and helps ensure the sessions meeting COVID-safe practices.
We offer three different street gatherings.
- Street Meets
Street Meets are a great way to improve your connection with your neighbours. Celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, cultural festivities and sporting events are great opportunities to improve a connection with your neighbours.
- Play Streets
Play Streets are similar to Street Meets but have a strong focus on encouraging children and families to get active and play outside safey. We can supply sporting equipment such as bats, balls, hula hoops and skipping ropes. Play Streets are perfect all year round.
- Spooky Streets
Would you like to have your street closed to host a Halloween celebration with your neighbours?A Spooky Street is a frightfully great way to 'trick or treat' with the kids, play, and have fun together.
What do I need to host a street gathering
- A key resident (or residents) to be the driving force behind a street gathering
- Time to organise the street gathering (you will need to advise council of your event date three months in advance to allow time to gain appropriate approvals)
- Support from your neighbours
- A street that is able to be closed for a short period of time (less than 4 hours)
- Must be a small, local street (less than 1000 vehicles per day)
- Does not have a bus route on it
- No intersections or roundabouts in the closed area
- An easy, alternative route can be provided
- No road/footpath works are scheduled at time of event.
How much does it cost?
There are no fees charged by council to host a street gathering. It just takes your time to plan & coordinate the day.
What do I need to consider when planning the event?
Your event needs to:
- be no more than four hours long
- be held during daylight hours
- have support from neighbours
- be open to local street residents
- have an application signed and submitted 12 weeks prior to the event date to ensure enough time for road closure approval
- not include the sale of alcohol or other forms of trading
- always remain accessible to emergency vehicles (no large structures set up on the street).
What support will I receive from council?
The City of Onkaparinga supports street gatherings as a way to build community spirit. We will support you by:
- assigning a dedicated community connections officer who will act as your main contact within council and support you every step of the way in planning your event
- providing you and your event with appropriate Public Liability Insurance
- waiving permit fees and road closure advertising costs
- developing a Traffic Management Plan, coordinating permits, advertising the road closure and supplying traffic controllers on the day.
- loaning sporting equipment such as bats, balls and fun activities
- freebies such as chalk, frisbees and skipping ropes.
Resources
Play Streets guide(PDF, 1MB)
Street Meets guide(PDF, 608KB)
These are currently being revised and some information may be outdated.
Contact
For more information please contact our Community Connections team on 8384 0666 or email mail@onkaparinga.sa.gov.au
See our Youtube clips to learn more about our street gathering programs.
Play Streets is funded under the South Australian Government Statewide Wellbeing Strategy, led by Wellbeing SA.
