After an amazing 3-day Buskers’ Pow-Wow on the canal we’d like to extend a massive thank you to everyone who attended, but especially Eric Ellman of Bards on Boats and the Union Tavern for hosting us. A big hand too for Sam Jordan from the Musicians’ Union who joined us for the Know Your Rights workshop, and Julia Gregory (Local Democracy Reporter) who joined us on Tuesday afternoon and wrote this article.
We set out to protest the Kensington & Chelsea busking bans but I feel here we now have the bones of a London-wide grassroots performers group, which will be able to take a more co-ordinated and holistic approach to busking across the capital rather than seeing pitches and issues in isolation. If this is something which you’d like to be part of please check out the Keep Streets Live in London Facebook group.
As you’ve all been so awesome we’d love to help you out so we’ve added a few of your tracks to our Spotify playlist and if you’ve got any photos/video from the event use the hashtags #KeepStreetsLive #SayNo2PSPO and #BuskersPowWow to make sure we can find them to like/share etc. Alternatively you can send by email to contact@keepstreetslive.com
We’re currently looking at the possibility of another canal-based London event later in the year, and certainly another full day of busking workshops in Manchester in early-November. If you’d like us to do something in your local area please let us know.
If you missed our workshops or would like to re-cap you can find the livestreams here:
Know Your Rights. Tech For Artists part 1. Tech For Artists part 2.
So the goal is “ a London-wide grassroots performers group, which will be able to take a more co-ordinated and holistic approach to busking across the capital rather than seeing pitches and issues in isolation.“?
Nice Clarity of mission. What are the steps to realise it?
Glad you see some clarity of mission there! Not sure what the steps are but it was a feeling I had from what we achieved last week. Definitely more events to help bond performers and create a shared feeling of purpose. The waterways event sounds good if we could pull it off later in the year.
Music is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind. He who renders it accessible to as many people as possible is a benefactor of humanity. Zoltan Kodály.
We must protect the right of street musicians to perform as their work enriches our lives in every way. Removing them is a threat to freedom and the start of the slippery road down towards state control of everything.
Dear David (and my old Director of Music),
I wholeheartedly agree with your comment, and think Kodaly would very much have approved. You might be interested in this, that I’m currently setting up to help the performing arts go outside during the pandemic: http://www.outtoperform.org – please join our mailing list!
best wishes, Stuart