Best US/Can Cities for Busking?

[billder99]

Good article from the New York Times... Ashville wants a vibrant street music scene, but there are conflicts if unregulated: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us...pgtype=article

What other cities in the US/Can are destinations for buskers? Where are the best buskers? Busker Nirvana?

[roylor4]

Originally Posted by billder99

Good article from the New York Times... Ashville wants a vibrant street music scene, but there are conflicts if unregulated: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us...pgtype=article

What other cities in the US/Can are destinations for buskers? Where are the best buskers? Busker Nirvana?

Good article. The music scene is vibrant both on the street and indoors in Asheville. Lots of talent go out of their way to play there.

I have a "Buskers License" for Greensboro, NC - the closest city to me. The license is cheap (5-10 bucks) and includes a list of rules and regulations. It does seem to keep folks in check for the most part. It is essentially the same as a panhandler's license here, which I don't particularly care for. They do a police background check for it, which is probably not a bad thing.

Not a big scene like Asheville though - pretty small time. I really don't know where it is a big thing - I'm sure you will get a lot of input on this one eventually.

[fazool]

Busking is almost non-existent around these parts. With the winter weather, the season is probably limited anyway.

But last night we went up to a gourmet ice cream shop overlooking the locks on the Erie Canal and their museum. Quaint little place. There was a guy busking there with a few people around at tables eating their ice cream. It was fairly enjoyable.

He waved when he saw my Taylor Guitars T-shirt so he must have been good

[picassov7]

For the US--There was a good bit of busking going on in Santa Monica when I was there a year ago or so. Also, I flew into the Minneapolis airport last year and was surprised to see a baby grand piano in the arrival hall with a sign that said "Get Noticed". I thought that was very cool!

[Rmz76]

Originally Posted by billder99

Good article from the New York Times... Ashville wants a vibrant street music scene, but there are conflicts if unregulated: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us...pgtype=article

What other cities in the US/Can are destinations for buskers? Where are the best buskers? Busker Nirvana?

Austin, New Orleans, Nashville, Seattle

[MikeBmusic]

Boston has a fair number of buskers in the summer - and they all use battery amps these days, too, so have to set up away from each other - seems there's a real 'territory thing' going. Don't see them in the Gardens or Common, so they must be kept away by the rangers/cops. I know you have get a permit to do it in the subway ($25), not sure about the city itself. I see the article mentions Fanuel Hall - that's always been a place where they have to approve you and schedule you first, I figured they charged but the $2500 mentioned is outrageous. But I've seen people there with a crowd of 2-300 - and they need a 'crowd worker' to go around collecting money, or they don't see much cash in the end.
But, I don't see many of them making a lot of money, either. I did it back in my end-of-college days to make a few bucks for food and beer, cops were always telling me to 'move along'.

[billder99]

Cool responses, and nice snippets of living the busking life... I would have done it as a youngster, but started playing guitar just 5.5 years ago and now 58 yrs old... and I don't need it for beer money. Now though, I love to see good buskers on the street (I even admire bad buskers, though I think they are more panhandler than entertainer).

Cities mentioned so far are mostly big cities... are there other smaller or mid-sized cities where busking is common? (even better if busking is welcomed and gently regulated)

• Asheville, NC
• Greensboro, NC
• Along the Erie Canal
• Santa Monica, CA
• Austin, TX
• New Orleans, LA
• Nashville, TN
• Seattle, WA
• Boston, MA
• I'll add San Francisco... lot's of different places in the city
  
  EDIT: Adding to the list as they in appear in new posts:
• Vancouver Island, BC Canada
• Clearwater Beach, FL
• New York City, "Busking Capital of the World" (maybe)
• Greensboro, NC
• Madison, WI
• Blackeyeddog says - "Be creative... find the best foot traffic... any city can be good"

[Blueshoes]

New Orleans already mentioned , you can hear all kinds of music from guitar ,fiddle , jazz, zydeco, blues also plenty of other performing artists.

I was in Clearwater Beach Florida last winter and plenty of buskers on the beach there and again a big variety.

[Captain Jim]

The city of Victoria on Vancouver Island, BC. One of my favorite places to see buskers. There is a walkway along the waterfront. Buskers (and artists) get a license for a particular place and time-slot. Over the years, we've seen some performers who have been playing there for years, and some newbies.

Don't show up for your time-slot and someone else gets it in the future.

[devellis]

There's an inevitable tension between legitimate performers and panhandlers. Performers don't have to be professional-level to add a lot of color and character to a town. If they're not accosting people or obstructing traffic, buskers really enhance the places where they perform, in my judgment.

Panhandlers can be perfectly benign at one extreme or aggressive and intimidating at the other. When they become more aggressive, it's not pleasant for tourists (locals may know the panhandlers and be more tolerant) and actually messes things up for the performers, as well.

When funding for public inpatient psychiatric care facilities dried up in the 1970s, the number and type of panhandlers on city streets underwent a pretty large change. Now, it's not uncommon for there to be people living on streets or panhandling there who have serious mental health issues. I know I've seen people who are pretty clearly schizophrenic and who may be actively hallucinating. To many, they can be pretty scary and oftentimes, they're pretty terrified themselves. They may actually be trying to scrape out the best existence they can with little in the way of help or resources. Most are pretty harmless but some may not be and even the harmless ones can be offensive in non-dangerous ways. Cities and towns have to deal with them in ways that aren't unfair to anybody -- a virtual impossibility in most places. Also, there are a variety of people who are accomplished at hustling cash from tourists who also show up where they can operate with relative ease. Their presence on the street may be more a choice than a necessity. It can be hard to sort out who's who.

In an ideal world, they would have better options available to the folks with mental health problems and thus wouldn't be scaring tourists or creating an unsightly nuisance that annoys shopkeepers or interferes with performers. But that doesn't seem to be the way things are trending. Physical limitations seem to be getting more respect these days, so perhaps mental ones will as well some day.

We all like the talented musicians and performers but not the intimidating characters who are there for a quick buck. But sorting them out perfectly will never happen. Auditioning will always be controversial because art is difficult to judge. Licensing isn't a bad idea because it provides an opportunity to screen people out who may be up to no good. But if there's a lot of coming-and-going, the police won't know all of the players and constantly hassling them for credentials is disruptive.

I think the "undesirables" are just a price that a municipality has to pay to a greater or lesser degree if they decide to allow or especially encourage street performers. They can enforce existing laws but it can be hard to keep that from becoming pretty arbitrary. Many towns just go to the other extreme and ban performances of any sort unless they're sanctioned by an establishment with appropriate licensing (like someone playing at a beer garden of an established bar or restaurant or open mics).

When busking works, it's undoubtedly a major plus for a town. When it doesn't it can be the opposite.

[6L6]

Lots of buskers in San Francisco.

[epluribus36]

Tucson was pretty cool in the 80's. What I remember of it, anyway.

[djg]

Interesting article.

I've been splitting my time between Washington, DC and Boston. Boston seems much better for busking -- it's common to see people in the T (the subway) -- varied abilities, like anywhere, but some of them are very good. With nicer weather things spread outdoors.

Washington -- just not nearly as much in evidence.

Just my own sense of things. I don't know how much of the difference has to do with municipal regulations and how much with supply (say, from the large number of young folks and several music schools in the Boston area), but the turnout sure seems different.

Don't do any busking myself, so I have no personal experiences to report as a player.

[RP]

Very cool article and discussion. Thanks for posting...

[billder99]

Originally Posted by devellis

... Auditioning will always be controversial because art is difficult to judge. Licensing isn't a bad idea because it provides an opportunity to screen people out who may be up to no good. But if there's a lot of coming-and-going, the police won't know all of the players and constantly hassling them for credentials is disruptive.

When busking works, it's undoubtedly a major plus for a town. When it doesn't it can be the opposite.

I like busking, I think many people enjoy it when done well. You make lots of good points... a few ideas:

Auditioning: This seems workable to me. A person who wants to perform has to demonstrate their performance (music, mime, comedy, dance, etc) for a few minutes in order to get a permit. They have to prove they do what they say, and they are not so horrible as to be offensive. This would separate out many panhandlers looking for busking permits, and would ensure a minimal level of quality for permitted performers. Allow for a 2nd opinion "interview" if somebody protests a rejection as unfair. If two people agree that a person is not an asset to street performance, they probably aren't!

Checking Permits: Part of the permit could be displaying your permit where authorities can easily read it... not disruptive to the performance, easy to check and verify.

Permits: Should be inexpensive ($5-$10), to give incentive to apply. The process requires a bureaucrat to issue a permit, and audition if that is required... it will never be a 5 minute process.