Food trucks and festival stalls in Iceland: the permits you need, and what they cost

A food truck or a festival stall is one of the cheapest ways to start selling food in Iceland. The permits are fewer than for a restaurant, but they come from three different places, and each one has its own lead time. This guide sets out those permits, mostly with Reykjavík’s rules and 2026 prices, as of October 2026.

If you plan a fixed restaurant or café, read Opening a restaurant in Iceland instead. Many of the steps are the same, but the premises part is different.

Three permits from three places

Most mobile food businesses need some or all of these:

The order matters. HER asks you to apply for the food permit once the city has promised you a spot.⁴ The city, in turn, makes the food permit a condition of the street-vending permit.² In practice, you apply for the spot first and then send the food permit application as soon as you have the city’s answer.

The street-vending permit in Reykjavík

Reykjavík has four kinds of street-vending permit:¹

• Market sales by individuals (markaðssala). Small stalls on squares such as Lækjartorg and Ingólfstorg.
• Day and night sales in the city centre (dag- og nætursala). Fixed spots for trucks. Day sales run from 09:00 to 21:00. Night sales run from 22:00 to 05:00, at 4 spots on Lækjartorg.
• Neighbourhood sales (hverfasala). Day sales from 09:00 to 21:00 outside the centre. Up to 5 sellers can share one area, and as a rule trucks park in parking spaces.
• Summer sales (sumarsala). Spots in public parks from 15 May to 15 September.

The permit year runs from 15 May to 14 May. For the centre, you can apply from 15 February, and the shortest permit is two months. For neighbourhood sales, the shortest permit is three months.¹ You apply on Mínar síður on the city’s website.¹

Plan for the processing time. The city aims for one week for market sales and up to two months for the other kinds.¹ An application without the required documents is turned away.²

The main conditions

The city lists these among its conditions:²

• At least 1,5 m of pavement stays clear for people walking.
• You keep at least 20 m from the entrance of a business that sells similar products in the centre, and 50 m in the neighbourhoods.
• You sort your waste and take it to a recycling centre.
• You remove the stall or truck from the spot after closing.
• You show the permit at the stall.
• You clear snow and ice around your spot.

You cannot transfer or sublet the permit.² The city also asks owners to keep trucks light, because pavements and squares are not built for heavy vehicles.¹

2026 prices

The city sets the fee each year. The 2026 prices are:³

The city does not refund the fee after it issues the permit.¹ For centre day and night spots, you pay within 30 days, or the city gives the spot to someone else.²

The food permit for a truck or stall

A food truck needs a food permit from the health inspectorate. The South Iceland inspectorate confirms that mobile food businesses need an operating permit (starfsleyfisskyld).⁶ You apply to the inspectorate in the area where your business is registered.^{6 4}

HER issues one permit for each truck. A truck with an HER permit can also trade outside Reykjavík, unless something has changed since the permit was issued. HER recommends that you tell the local inspectorate when you arrive in its area, and that inspectorate can inspect you too.⁴

HER’s conditions for food trucks list what the inspector looks for:⁴

• Hot and cold drinking water.
• A hand basin with hands-free taps, liquid soap, paper towels and sanitiser in wall dispensers.
• A separate sink for utensils and equipment, and a food sink if you prepare a lot of food.
• A tank for waste water from the sinks.
• A fly killer.
• Surfaces that are easy to clean.
• A signed agreement that gives staff access to a toilet near the truck. Public toilets and toilets in private homes are not accepted.
• A licensed place for any food that you store outside the truck, and a licensed laundry for aprons and cloths.
• A food safety system (innra eftirlit) that fits the size of the business.
• Cold food at 0–4 °C, frozen food at −18 °C or colder, and hot food at 60 °C or hotter.
• Waste removal at least once a day, and receipts for used frying oil, kept for the inspector.

Staff must also be able to tell guests about allergens. If they do that by word of mouth, a sign must tell guests to ask.⁴ Our guide to allergens on the menu covers this in more detail.

What the food permit costs in Reykjavík

HER’s 2026 fee schedule has these prices:⁵

HER may lower or waive the temporary permit fee for stalls.⁵ Other inspectorates have their own fee schedules.

City festivals: 17. júní, Pride and Menningarnótt

A street-vending permit is not valid at the festivals in the city centre, such as 17. júní, Reykjavík Pride and Menningarnótt. The city’s events team handles sales spots for these days. You apply by email to torgsala@reykjavik.is.¹ The 2026 prices for one day are:³

One festival day costs more than a month on a market spot, so plan your menu and staff with the price in mind.

Reykjavík street-vending fees, 2026: one month compared with one festival day

Show the data

Permit	Price
Market spot, one month	31.300 kr.
Neighbourhood sales, one month	31.200 kr.
17. júní, one day	79.400 kr.
Reykjavík Pride, one day	115.300 kr.
Menningarnótt, one day	158.800 kr.

Festivals outside Reykjavík, such as town festivals and music festivals, have their own arrangements. Ask the organiser and the municipality who gives out the spots and what they charge. Your food permit from your home inspectorate goes with the truck.

Alcohol at an event: the occasional licence

To serve or hand out alcohol at a single event, you need an occasional licence (tækifærisleyfi). The law covers events indoors, in the open air and in a tent. The sýslumaður issues the licence only for a place that has no operating licence, and normally not more than 12 times a year for the same place.⁷ A venue with an operating licence can get an occasional licence as an addition, for example for extra hours.⁷

The law asks for at least two weeks’ notice.⁷ The sýslumenn ask for more time for bigger events:⁸

The licence costs 12.000 kr. without alcohol and 36.000 kr. with alcohol. The fire service may charge for its review, STEF charges for music, and the police can require door staff.⁸ The sýslumaður asks the police, the municipality, the health inspectorate and the fire service for their opinions and can set conditions such as the number of guests and the closing time.⁷

A worked example: a waffle truck in Reykjavík

Sara wants to sell waffles from a small truck in a Reykjavík neighbourhood from June to August, and on Menningarnótt.

1. Early March. She applies on Mínar síður for neighbourhood sales from 1 June. The city can take up to two months.
2. When the city answers. She sends her food permit application to HER. It describes her menu, her water and waste-water tanks, her food safety system and her toilet agreement with a café nearby.
3. May. HER inspects the truck. She pays the permit invoice.
4. June. She emails torgsala@reykjavik.is about a spot on Menningarnótt.

Her 2026 costs for the permits are:^{3 5}

Sara does not serve alcohol, so she needs no occasional licence. On a festival day, the mobile network can be very busy. Resto keeps taking orders and printing kitchen tickets offline, but card payments still need a connection, so check the signal at your spot before the day.

From 1 January 2027, the food permit moves to the state

Two new laws change who issues the food permit. From 1 January 2027, the state agency Stofnun atvinnuveganna takes over food control from the municipal health committees, and the food act then says that it issues the permits for producing and distributing food.¹⁰ The Environment and Energy Agency (Umhverfis- og orkustofnun) takes over hygiene licensing. In the law on restaurants and events, these two agencies replace the health committees, also in the review of occasional licences.⁹

The street-vending permit stays with the municipality, and the occasional licence stays with the sýslumaður. As of October 2026, it is not clear how food permits issued before 2027 carry over, or what the new fees will be. If your season starts in spring 2027, ask your health inspectorate this winter which agency will handle your application.