Stats on the Benefit of Buskers in your Community?

[heckler]

I am helping our little town pass some ordinances (laws) for buskers who wish to perform here.

As an old school busker who is getting back into it, I want to help however I can. The town is pretty open to busking (good)and would rather not go through a permit process for the buskers (good) It will go up in front of the town council soon and I want to have some good facts in the back-pocket in case something goes wrong.

Any one have any real data, or documented andectotal info on the benefit that streeet performers provide a community and/or festival??

Anybody been through the process of changing your town's ordinances to allow busking?

Anything the town may wish to consider for their bill?

Thanks in advance.

[Isabella]

Check in with Mimi Fritz in the Downtown Development Office in Holland, Michigan - I don't have her info handy but she's google-able. She works with the city on permitting and fought to get street performers in, and she'd have a lot to back it up, Holland is super conservative and it was tough to do.

[jeep caillouet]

Laws

I am helping our little town pass some ordinances (laws) for buskers who wish to perform here.

Don't pass any laws. Leave it as it is . If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Buskers hate laws,and do we really need more laws?
Let freedom ring!

[GlassHarper]

Regulation of street performance: the best compilation of info yet.

Community Arts Advocates of Jamaica Plains, MA, was founded years ago by Stephan Baird, a chemical engineer and street performer in Boston, Cambridge and points East, West, North and South.

When you see the Community Arts web site
(communityartsadvocates,org) you will understand why Stephan's engineering background has been so important to the world of street performers. There are legal citations, historical references, model regulations, a code of ethics and much, much more.

That said, the best regulation remains no regulation; the best assurance of no regulation is for each of us to respect the sensibilities of the communities in which we play.

[jeep caillouet]

laws

Glass Harper, you said it best! You know we really had to fight the establishment hard in the old days to keep us free in NOLA. NOLA is still free. No more laws!

[Evan Young]

In principal I'm not a fan of regulation, but in reality I find that they can help a lot. Street performers can be very selfish people (just like anyone else), and giving them some fair and simple boundaries can help prevent some major problems that will lead to the community trying to reject them outright.