Melbourne recently experienced uproar from its extensive community of buskers, who were incensed at the city’s trialling of an amplified busking ban on Swanston St in the CBD – one of the city’s most popular busking hotspots.
The trial recently came to a close and the City of Melbourne is now assessing all of the complaints and feedback received during the trial to see whether an amplified busking ban may become the law of the land down the line.
That means the time is now to get on the horn and let Melbourne City Council know how you feel about these issues. In the meantime, the city of Lismore in northeastern New South Wales is trying a different approach to combat ‘problem busking’.
As the Northern Star reports, Lismore City Council will being enforcing tougher restrictions on buskers found to be too loud, overly repetitive, or just plain offensive by adding them to a “bad busker database”.
This effective blacklist will provide the council with a backlog of complaints filed against a given busker and once the performer has too many complaints lodged against them, they will not be able to acquire a license to perform.
Sussing out the mysterious rules of busking can often be difficult, as Tone Deaf has covered in the past. For example, in Melbourne you also need a license to perform on the street, but it comes in at a very reasonable $20.
However, if you want to perform on the illustrious Bourke Street Mall, you must go through an audition process. The council holds auditions for quality control as they want only the best playing on Melbourne’s most prestigious walkway.
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Of course, you must be careful if you want to amplify your instruments or play Spanish guitar, because Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle won’t be too fond of you. Apparently, the Lord Mayor finds loud busking bothersome and Spanish guitars “creepy”.
