The annual festival trap: one big day a year can change your whole tier

Here's the rule that catches venues out. Martyn's Law tiers turn on how many people can reasonably be expected at your premises at the same time, from time to time. And "from time to time" does not mean "most days". It includes a big occasion you expect to repeat, even if it happens once a year.

The official examples are blunt about it

The Home Office's supplementary scope document (document B) works through exactly these cases:

• A pub with a normal peak of 100 that hosts one music festival a year in its building and gardens, expecting 800 or more, is enhanced tier premises. Not "standard with one big event". Enhanced, all year (example 3).
• A golf club with a normal peak of 300 that runs an annual firework display for 1,200 is enhanced tier (example 6).
• A stately home with large events roughly ten times a year is enhanced (example 7). A nightclub with five or six 800+ special nights a year is enhanced (example 8).

The logic: if the occasion is expected to happen again, then 800+ people can reasonably be expected "from time to time", and the premises meet the enhanced threshold under section 2(3) of the Act.

Genuine one-offs are different

A true one-off doesn't change your premises tier. The official example is a football stadium that normally expects 500 spectators and hosts a single testimonial match for 1,000, not expected to recur: the premises stay in the standard tier (example 5). The testimonial itself, though, meets the criteria for a qualifying event, a separate part of the Act with its own (enhanced-level) requirements for the event, where there are entry controls like ticket checks.

So the honest questions to ask yourself are:

1. Could 800 or more people, public plus everyone working, ever be here at once?
2. If it's happened or it's planned: do we expect it to happen again?

Yes to both → your premises are likely enhanced tier, every day of the year. Yes then no → standard tier premises, but the big day itself may be a qualifying event.

The exceptions: worship and education

Places of worship, childcare, and primary, secondary and further education settings stay in the standard tier regardless of numbers (paras 4.36–4.39). The supplementary examples include a temple hosting an 800+ Holi celebration on its own grounds: still standard tier. (Universities don't get this exception.)

Three things this means in practice

1. Don't assess your tier on a normal week. The test is your biggest reasonably-expected day. Seasonal peaks, match days and the Christmas rush all count (para 4.31).
2. The flip side: don't panic over fire capacity. Numbers are about realistic expected peaks, not the theoretical maximum. The guidance's gallery with a fire capacity of 850 but real peaks of 500 is standard tier.
3. If you're near the line, the decision is partly in your hands. Capping that annual event's attendance (e.g. ticketing it at 750 including staff) keeps the premises in the standard tier. That's a legitimate operational choice, and a much cheaper one than enhanced-tier compliance.

Our free tier checker asks the big-day question explicitly, most don't.

Sources: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025; Home Office statutory guidance (April 2026, updated May 2026) and supplementary documents. Paragraph references are to the statutory guidance. General information, not legal advice. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.