Support for buskers in Sydney

PRESS RELEASE

New busking locations across the city, curated street performances in popular public spaces and more opportunities for buskers to hone their craft are just some of the ideas being considered to support and encourage busking in Sydney.

The City of Sydney’s new busking discussion paper draws on examples from some of the world’s best busking cities to identify ideas with the potential to make busking easier, while also managing potential impacts on nearby residents and businesses.

The City is calling on musicians, performers, residents, businesses, music industry representatives and government agencies to provide feedback and put forward ideas to help inform the City’s new busking policy and future busking initiatives.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the paper was designed to stimulate debate on how best to coordinate busking and encourage terrific performers to get out and perform on the city’s streets.

“Sydney has a great tradition of busking, with an estimated 500 buskers performing across the city every week,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Busking brings our public spaces to life, entertains thousands and helps talented musicians and performers make a living.

“We know busking’s popular – a recent survey showed the majority of people want more street performance and think buskers help create a pleasant street environment.

“At the moment, practically anyone can easily and affordably busk anywhere on City of Sydney land, and we already support busking in a range of other ways, including providing public liability insurance for buskers at no cost.

“We’re looking for more ways we can support these musicians and performers, which may involve working with other government agencies to simplify busking permits, introducing a busking ‘code of conduct’ to help buskers know their rights and responsibilities, and offering buskers professional development opportunities like workshops and seminars.”

Some of the ideas up for discussion in the paper include:

• Working with festival and event organisers across Sydney to introduce or increase busking as part of their programs, or developing an annual busking festival.

• Connecting the busking community to local music organisations and businesses to develop curated street performance programs in high-traffic public spaces.

• Working with buskers to identify and develop new busking locations, known as ‘pitches’, both on City of Sydney land and across the wider Sydney metropolitan area.

• Working collaboratively with buskers to find practical ways to manage potential noise impacts of street performance. These could include decibel limits or maximum amplification settings, limiting amplification equipment or particular instruments in certain locations, or providing incentives like lower costs or longer permit periods to buskers who choose not to amplify their performances. Such approaches are a common feature of busking frameworks in other cities worldwide.

• Introducing an online licensing process, rather than the current face-to-face application process, to make becoming a busker easier and the process more accessible.

• Supporting a busker-managed draw system to replace the current ‘first-come, first-served’ approach to bookings in popular pitches.

• Introducing an audition system for popular busking pitches, similar to approaches taken in other cities including Melbourne and Brisbane, the New York subway and London underground.

• Introducing a busking code of conduct, similar to that introduced across greater London in 2015, to help buskers understand their rights and responsibilities, and provide guidance to buskers on how the City regulates busking and performance in public spaces.

• Working with music industry organisations to run workshops and seminars or produce fact sheets and other resources to support the professional development of musicians and buskers.

The busking discussion paper will be on public exhibition until 30 April at sydneyyoursay.com.au/busking-incity. The City encourages people to use the above ideas as a starting point for their own submission.