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Recently a number of Buskerworld fans have sent me some pretty alarming stories about being harassed by people who dominate profitable busking pitches and threaten street performers who dare to move in on “their” territory. Obviously this is totally outta line and should be bought to the notice of any council or authority who has control over that community sector. Not everyone enjoys having to get a busking licence however one of its benefits is that it enables the authorities to keep an eye on what is going on and keep a reasonably level playing field for all of us who love to perform on the street.
The following excerpt is taken from my busking book and lets you in on what my experiences have been with this subject. I would love to hear more stories from buskers out there about this annoying….“Ring of Fire”
Understanding The Busking Mafia
There are certain places where street performance is very competitive or the hot spot is so HOT, that the allocation of busking time has been taken over by an unofficial authority (to put it nicely) who usually demand a fee for allowing you to busk there.
My Experience: Busking in Amsterdam is very competitive which left me with a few obstacles to overcome before I could start performing at popular busking hot spots. I was keen to busk in a particular museum that had an incredible acoustic atmosphere and lots of pedestrian traffic, due to tourist popularity. I attempted to follow busker etiquette without success on a number of occasions. I was baffled by the same answer each busker gave me – “someone had already asked to go next and that I should be quicker”. I tried different strategies and still received the same answer. As I was a particularly determined busker, I decided to hang around, watch closely and ask the new busker if I could perform next.
My newly devised fail proof strategy meant that I would know if anyone else had asked before me, yet I received the same answer “I should be quicker, someone else had already asked”. I replied that this was not possible as he had only just arrived and I was the first to ask to perform after him. Reluctantly and somewhat nervously (looking around as if he was expecting someone) he agreed to follow busker etiquette and allowed me to perform next. At last, I had scored my classic pitch but there was something about the experience that didn’t make sense. I was intrigued and wanted to solve this mystery as other buskers had told me of similar experiences with other hot spots in the area.
All too soon everything became much clearer when an angry ‘performer’ interrupted me and said he was due to start busking now. I told him what had occurred and advised him that I had secured this spot fairly. His anger flared and he threatened to bring the mob around if I insisted on staying. He told me that this was a protected pitch that was controlled by his network and only certain people (those who paid him a percentage) could perform here. Of course I wasn’t one of them.
I remained calm and simply repeated what had happened, adding that some more of my friends were also going to play here, but he was free to go next and I’d see him in an hour. He didn’t come back, so I continued to busk for a few hours before finally handing the pitch over to the next performer, someone who had no knowledge or connection with the controlled network. Normally, I wouldn’t have taken such a risk but persistence and blind stupidity kept me determined and thankfully my audacity paid off. I later found out that I had broken the controlled cycle in that location. I returned to that very special busking location a number of times and played successfully without incident and each time I played, not only did I receive encouraging support from the public but also from many other buskers who had also wanted to perform in that location but had been warned off by the ‘busking mafia’ that had controlled such a fantastic busking hot spot for way too long!
Now I realize that this is probably not the best way to solve this dilemma and is of course a somewhat risky approach. It just isn’t worth your life or perhaps fingers (some of the threats aimed at me that day) however I was young, naive and rebellious back then. These days when this problem occurs I take the issue up with the local council or governing authority and have someone else take on the busking mafia.
It’s just an annoying obstacle that some street performers have to overcome because there are always street performers who don’t care about following busking etiquette and unfortunately, you just have to work with this. My tip here comes from what has worked for me. I‘ve found that, if someone is dominating a pitch and you can’t be bothered with fighting it, then why not take the approach of scouting around for a better spot that no one has thought of or tried out.
From my experience I know you’ll be totally surprised with what you may find. Look forward to hearing from anyone out there with any experiences related to this subject. We would be happy to post anything that can help all street performers.
Cheers
Johnnie Mac
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Johnnie Mac is a world class, professional, leading street performer, turned celebrated musician. He is the only Aussie Professional Busker who provides a fast, reliable and sure-fire Busking System that can transform any busker into a well paid and highly acclaimed entertainer enjoying a remarkably exciting lifestyle. To discover 101 Essential Tips to Have More Fun and Earn More Money Busking visit http://www.BuskerWorld.com/theBuskersBible
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Im a busker in Toronto Canada. Ive had a similar experience but with street people. Homeless in the area will hog hot spots for pan handling, some may stay rooted for hours at a time. In some situations I had these people trying to run me off good spots even though I had arrived before them.