Busking rules will mute the music

A long time ago, busking in Ottawa’s (then) unique ByWard Market ran relatively smoothly on what amounted to gentlemanly agreements between players. We could do an hour, then pass the spot along to someone else. There was no fee. Of course, some players crossed lines and pushed limits. Some still do.

Back then, management levied a $200 total yearly fee and installed a performance regime based on prescribed spots and time slots. We buskers all wondered at the time if the BIA’s goal was simply to dissuade street playing. But it did regulate us and ended a certain amount of difficulty between certain players. We adjusted and up until the new 2018 regime, things have been great.

With the new busking permits coming April 1, we are now being asked to carry several millions of dollars’ worth of personal liability insurance, pushing the total financial burden of performing in the ByWard Market up toward $500 per season. Several of Ottawa’s best street players will be out of the picture now. Some young students will be shut out, too. We were not consulted on this issue. And the ByWard Market will lose even more of its waning appeal.

Busking is just one slice of my musical pie, and I can afford this latest hit. And although, in four decades of busking in Ottawa, I have never had an accident involving a patron, I do feel better to have this insurance security in case someone trips on my tips hat or music stand.

I have no idea how the knife and fire jugglers and acrobats at York and William streets are going to handle this. The agent I dealt with said she would never underwrite the serious public risk those circle performers represent.

I wish there were a better answer to this, but for now, for ByWard, it seems April 1 will be “the day the music died.”

Thomas Brawn, B.Mus., flutist, busker, Ottawa