The Busking Project - Documenting Street Performance Worldwide

Nick Broad: How did you come to busk? Lena Walker: I started busking because music is my passion and I’d recently been inspired to master the guitar. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been enchanted by buskers. Also, I saw it as a challenge, trying to make busy people stop in their tracks [...]

What has busking done for me? I was, at 37 years old, bankrupt, with a dead end job living in Edinburgh in a cramped flat, getting enough money to pay my rent and bills. I gave it up and started to tour, busking in Europe. I now live in the south of France, have freedom, [...]

Two weeks ago I got an email from an angry busker in South Carolina about a street performance ordinance the city of Columbia is currently trying to pass: I went to that city hall hearing tonight and the ordinance was struck down, thankfully, with another hearing scheduled for next week. It will be an exploratory [...]

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE (because it’s excellent) This is an email sent to us by “Sarah”, who tells how she came to appreciate buskers. Well, one in particular. After 2 stressful days of dealing with the Indian Embassy, finally completing all the paperwork and providing the “acceptable” size passport photos, my visa was being [...]

  Ever since I first expressed an interest in street performers, people have been sending me links to Pearls Before Breakfast, a Pulitzer Prize winning article by Gene Weingarten. In it, he describes how Joshua Bell, one of the most famous violinists in the world, busked using a $3.5 million Stradivarius in the Washington D.C. [...]

Rick Lewis: I began performing on the street in 1987. My main living nowadays is as a speaker and entertainer for corporate events (www.breakarule.com), but I still work the street when I can for the love of it. I’ve rolled much of what I learned about people, human behaviour and performance into a message for [...]

Yes, that’s right, a School of Busking. In the words of the school’s founder, Mario Morris: “We create a fun learning environment, in the shape of an evening course, one to one consultation or master class, we can bring our training course to you as we have done around the World – Cardiff, Cambridge, Milan, [...]

We spoke with “Modest Genius” David Spathaky, an old-timer who had something to say about permit systems. His comments rang true enough for us to want to post them here. Your thoughts are welcome below. —- Hi People, I busked in Covent Garden pre permit and lists, and in Edinburgh before regulation of any kind. [...]

Mark Marczyk: We’re a 14-piece Balkan-klezmer-gypsy-party-punk super-band based in Toronto, Canada. We perform anywhere and everywhere and have gained renown and infamy in the city in a surprisingly short amount of time by, you guessed it, busking. Busking is one of the cornerstones of city culture and music culture; it’s a public expression of a [...]

The Busking Project has just finished an online interview with the increasingly famous, ex-street performer James Cottriall. Like 99% of the successful ex-buskers out there, you won’t find any mention of street performance on his website. However, if you look, the information is out there. Check out the video of his hit single “Unbreakable” played [...]

Dear friends, fans, buskers and browsers, We have filmed in 40 cities on 5 continents, and have made it home, safe and almost sound. We filmed hundreds of street performances, and we know you want to see more. That’s why we created the following video. I promise you’ve never seen a street performer video like [...]

If I were mayor, I’d have a permit system in place that gives street performers benefits. While adding to my sense of control, it would also provide a very cheap form of advertising for my brand. I would call it something like The Street Performance Art for City Enlightenment (SPACE). My press secretary would tell [...]

THIS IS A PERSONAL PLEA FROM THE BUSKING PROJECT We’ve filmed hundreds of you around the world, your home lives, your performances, interviews with you. We’re now in possession of the world’s only global footage of street performance: we’re uniquely situated to make a documentary that ties the street art of Africa, Asia, Europe, North [...]

Hi all, There has always been a little confusion about exactly what The Busking Project hopes to achieve: a book, a documentary, a website…and for what? So, we thought we’d write a post about the aim for all the work we’ve put in over the last 10 months. This is an ideal list, some of [...]

We asked our readers to pitch in to a debate about “the perfect permit system”. Below are some of the responses. If you’d like to add your voice to this list, please add your comment here. Thanks! Gordon Thompson The most important thing here is that there is no need for permits. Attention to buskers [...]

I just had this email exchange with a concerned busker, and thought it might be interesting to other buskers thinking of traveling around the world. — MIKE I started busking (juggling, etc.) for the first time this summer in Canada, and will be moving to South Korea in less than a month. I’m bringing my [...]

VANCOUVER – JUNE (11): An anonymous busker, plays an unusual instrument, earning the approval of a young man on June 11, 2010, Downtown, Vancouver, British Columbia.   The Louder Later Project Erica Wilk contacted us about her photo-book project in Vancouver. From what I’ve seen, it’s absolutely gorgeous. The following is text from an email [...]

We got the following email off of Richard Hartnell, a resident artist at Flowtoys, a hub of the Bay Area flow arts community, and contact juggler. He’s thinking of making a pocket letter to show policemen that clearly state the street performers’ rights. What do you think — a good idea? “I’ve been performing up [...]

Artis the Spoonman is a local legend in Seattle. He has cerebral atrophy after 45 years of drinking, which has seriously affected his short term memory. He forgot we’d organised an interview after his closing set at the Pike Place Market busker fest (which was no problem, as by then we were pretty tired), and [...]

Here are three videos from our interviews taken with Charlie Caper in Stockholm. If you’ve ever thought about becoming a street performer, but haven’t plucked up the courage or are still hesitant about it, perhaps his advice will help. Share and Enjoy: