I’m putting together a volunteer advocacy group to try to improve the rough period busking is going through at the moment.
There’s info on how to apply to take part below.
When I say “rough period”, here’s what I mean:
🇬🇧 Birmingham banned busking across its city centre, after just 72 people complained. Busking was added to a list of anti-social behaviours in Northampton. London banned buskers in Leicester Square, after a judge called it “psychological torture”. The result was that for the first Christmas ever, musicians in Westminster had zero amplified pitches to perform on. There’s been a 90% drop in the number of busking licences applied for in Camden. New rules are either being considered or have already been passed in Reading, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Belfast.
As for the rest of the world, 🇮🇪 Wexford in Ireland effectively banned all street shows other than mimes. 🇨🇦 Quebec City banned buskers from singing in English. 🇺🇸 Amplification was banned in Golden, Colorado, and the public safety commissioner in Saratoga Springs said — incredibly — that he wants to make sure that buskers can’t sit in chairs. 🇦🇺 And Sydney effectively banned busking on some of its most popular pitches, without warning or discussing it with buskers first.
Those are just the stories I’ve already talked about over the last year, and here are two new ones: Oxford is thinking of changing its laws, and Perth in Scotland already has.
We should be celebrating busking
At the same time as all this has been happening, I’ve written about:
Busking ecosystems bring in a huge amount money for local businesses and city budgets
Busking is the antidote to much of the destruction wrought by the digital revolution (also here)
The transformative emotional connection street performers can have with their audiences
People living with disabilities have found busking to be an accessible revenue source
How can street performances be so beneficial for the cities around them, and simultaneously so frequently legislated against?
How is it that a force for good is treated as a nuisance?
And what can we do about it?
My favourite hat that I’ve ever photographed (this one from Tokyo)
Let’s build a committee to work that out.
I reckon it should educate lawmakers, business associations and members of the public about the positive impact buskers have.
I want to collect and promote information that would help busker advocates, musicians unions and arts organisations to protect busker rights.
I’d like to generate press releases that any street performer, anywhere in the world, would be able to download, edit and then distribute to their local news organisations, to generate support for their situation.
I’d like to create instructions to help advocates organise, build and promote their campaigns, so that they’re not always starting from scratch.
I promise you this will be useful. There are so many people around the world working on this issue, and we could make their arguments so much stronger, by providing the right information.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to set something like this up. Marcela helps me run busk.co, and we’re working on applying for grants to make significant upgrades to our website. Personally, I’m writing a book intended to shift the conversation around street performance.
So, I couldn’t personally organise an advocacy group right now. But what I can offer is:
Advice or direction as wanted/requested
Content that would help a committee to generate materials
A newsletter that reaches 7,000 buskers
A platform to host / distribute your work, used by hundreds of thousands of people every year
And people working on this will get a free premium account and a free BuskPay sign. They’ll both help you earn more money from your street audiences.
Also, if the committee needs to create infographics or powerpoints, a PR company to consult with, or even legal advice, then depending on how busk.co is doing at the time, we might be able to pay for that kind of thing.
Joe Mangrum’s artwork in Washington Square Park
Apply to volunteer here:
If you’d like to be a part of such a committee, then email me ([email protected]) to let me know your level of experience, how much time you’d be willing to commit, and anything else you think might be relevant. (Also tell me if you’d be willing to run the committee)
You can also just email me to give your advice!
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you,
Nick