New York City Cabaret Law

The New York City Cabaret Law was a dancing ban originally enacted in 1926, during Prohibition, and repealed in 2017. It referred to the prohibition of dancing in all New York City spaces open to the public selling food and/or drink unless they had obtained a cabaret license. It prohibited "musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement" without a license.

Critics argued that the license was expensive and difficult to obtain and that enforcement was arbitrary and weaponized against marginalized groups, but proponents insisted that the law minimized noise complaints.

At the time of the 2017 repeal of the law, after amendments over the years, the law required a license for cabarets, defined as:

3. "Cabaret." Any room, place or space in the city in which any musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement is permitted in connection with the restaurant business or the business of directly or indirectly selling to the public food or drink, except eating or drinking places, which provide incidental musical entertainment, without dancing, either by mechanical devices, or by not more than three persons.