Frequently Asked Questions About Insurance

While we have a good track record of a safe and fun event, insurance and liability coverage is a fact of life and is required to participate with Pride. If you have any questions after reviewing this information, please email vendors@sacramentopride.org and we will do our best to help you.

I want to have a booth at Pride. Am I required to have insurance?

The short answer is yes – insurance is mandatory for all exhibitors and food vendors at Sacramento Pride.

The reason for the insurance requirement is that it protects Sacramento Pride and our sponsoring organization, the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center, from the expense of having to defend against lawsuits or claims arising from your actions at Pride. Life happens — people slip and fall, somebody is careless and forgets to do something and injures somebody else, etc. If our exhibitors and food vendors did not have insurance of their own, the Center would have a very high expense of defending and potentially paying such claims, even if Pride had nothing to do with the incident.

What insurance do we need to have?

Most businesses and organizations already carry general liability insurance, so you may not need to have any special insurance for Pride. In these cases, your insurance carrier simply needs to provide Sacramento Pride with Certificate of Liability Insurance naming Sacramento Pride and the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center as “additional insured” for the day of Pride. Depending on your insurance carrier, there may or may not be a charge for this certificate.

You may also choose to purchase a special one-day insurance policy from our carrier, Casswood Insurance. Casswood insures many Pride festivals all around the country, and has a special arrangement for exhibitors and vendors. This coverage is very inexpensive, $50 or $100 in most cases.

How do we purchase one-day insurance coverage?

Casswood’s one-day policy is purchased by filling out this simple form and either mailing or faxing directly to the carrier. You can use your credit card or send a check.

Coverage rates:

Non-profit exhibitors: $50
For-profit exhibitors: $100
Food vendors: $200

We don’t have insurance and in previous years we did something called a “Hold Harmless” agreement and did not have to pay for insurance. Can we do that again?

Unfortunately no. The “hold harmless” agreement was a document where your organization/business agreed to accept liability in the event of a problem (to hold Pride and the Center “harmless”). However such an agreement is not helpful in the event of a claim or lawsuit unless your company or non-profit organization has the assets and resources to pay attorneys and pay medical bills or other claims. It effectively left Pride and the Center liable for such situations.

We have easy and affordable one-day insurance coverage now available, and are not able to accept the hold harmless agreement.

We are a government agency and are self insured. What do we do?

Bona-fide government agencies are exempt from the insurance certificate requirements, but are still liable for any claims which may arise from participation at Sacramento Pride. In most cases there is some kind of document you can provide in place of an insurance certificate that would be acceptable.