City admits new busker rules failed
Last year’s attempt to regulate Whyte Avenue busking did not go well. That’s one thing City of Edmonton officials and the busking crowd agree on.
Peace officers descended on the strip last June, gave a list of rules and told buskers they needed permits to play. But according to a city report heading to council’s community services committee Wednesday, more than half of the buskers refused to comply.
City officials said that’s because the buskers realized there was no penalty for not following the rules.
Buskers said they didn’t comply because city rules were unreasonable.
“You couldn’t follow them,” said Quinn Wade, who often plays saxophone in the area.
The rules banned all amplification, playing within 10 metres of an intersection (including with an alley), playing within 20 metres of a hotel or playing in a doorway, even if the business wasn’t operating, he said.
“It’s a whole bunch of rules that just conflict with each other,” he said, adding that made it almost impossible to find anywhere legal.
It was just frustrating, Wade said: “The corners are where people stop (listen and give money). If you’re not blocking traffic, it’s not an issue.”
“The corner is the traditional place to play,” said another busker in comments filed to the city. “As pedestrians pause for lights, it gives the musician a chance to be heard.”
City council asked staff to try regulating buskers last year as a pilot project. Residents and businesses had been complaining about a few buskers who use loud amplifiers or bang on buckets so forcefully that even without amplification it carries for blocks. Residents said the worst offenders keep at it until 3 a.m. during the summer.
The new pilot project rules allowed busking only between 10 a.m. and midnight.
But they were not enforceable. According to the city report, several buskers continue to play into the early morning hours.
City officials said they intend to review the bylaws to see if there are other ways to regulate the buskers, unless city councillors vote to try something else.
Wade said he wouldn’t mind a legally enforceable permitting process, as long as the rules were reasonable. Many other cities do that.
But other buskers performing Saturday didn’t see the need.
“I just see that as another way to charge people,” said guitarist and vocalist Clem Hughes, worried the city would want to cover costs, but buskers wouldn’t earn any more money.
From what he’s seen, most buskers stay out of the way of pedestrians and respect each other’s space: “It’s just general respect, busker to busker.”
For new buskers, “I think it would deter people to get a permit,” said Marvin Lee, out with an amplifier and guitar for the first time Saturday. He has enjoyed the buskers a lot when just walking on the avenue, he said.
“They ’re never in the way. I think they lighten up the street.”