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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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:

Mazurka Wojciechowska, from Chicago, IL, contacted us about a shitty experience she had, when another group of buskers set up in front of her and started drowning her out. In our following email exchange, she described a code-of-ethics for buskers. It’s an interesting addition to the debate on how buskers “should” act. — MAZURKA: Your [...]

A sad experience from internationally acclaimed busker, Space Cowboy: After 24 hours locked up I am now released from jail!!!! All my performance props have been confiscated but I am a free man. I was arrested for entertaining on the streets of New York! They charged me for ‘Disorderly conduct’ and I was locked up [...]

Mark Plessinger is the owner of the Main Street eyewear boutique Frame of Mind and founder of First Thursdays on Main in Columbia SC, a monthly event designed to promote the arts in the SC state capital: Can you tell us a little about the history of First Thursdays and talk about the street performance [...]

We recently spoke to Arif, a member of the Covent Garden Street Performers Association (SPA), about the busking situation in London. In his emailed response, he detailed the problems they’ve had with authorities, tells of why street performers are capable of regulating themselves, and suggests that new licensed pitches should be opened up. It’s makes [...]

A powerful testimony from Asheville busker, Sandra Hess: My hands are getting sweaty. My heart beating harder and harder as I take my seat. The footsteps of the people on the street echo through my mind like a freight train. Confusion and panic start to set in. The cars that drive by feel as if [...]

On the 23rd of August, in a white Volkswagen Beetle, we drove to Walterboro to meet Jim Hadley. We didn’t notice the earthquake because the car was Richter scale eight on wheels, windows rolled down and rattling in the doors. It was a surprise to hear the reports on the radio, tales of dislodged roof [...]

Benjamin Stein has been making his living on the streets for a few years, playing improvisations and traditional music from Afghanistan, Iran, Macedonia, Turkey, Japan, and Greece, amongst others. He started playing with the guitar, but moved onto instruments with much better names: the bağlama (Turkish lute), the santoor (Persian hammered dulcimer), the tar (Persian [...]

In Hellzapoppin’s touring Caravan, we interviewed Tim Cridland, known across the street performing world as Zamora the Torture King. Tim is a successful and professional performing artist, and has appeared on a host of television programs. We were lucky to see him performing on stage and on the streets while he was in Copenhagen, Denmark. [...]

Grego and his musical puppets have been performing in various venues and public spaces since 1975. The following is an interview with Grego about his experiences as a performer living and busking in Tokyo, Japan. Grego as a guerilla performer circa ’90 in Ueno Park 1. What first attracted you to the form of art [...]

There is a long list of famous performers who started out as buskers (see below) – maybe this is reason enough to support the new street performers we see on our streets. There is a chance you might be walking past the next Leonard Cohen on your way to work. He just needs a bit [...]