Anton Savage: Who’d be a busker in Dublin, the by-law black hole?
The council could do us all a favour by banning amps and just letting people sing the way they used to
Originally published in the Business Post.
It’s not easy being a busker. Leave aside the courage it takes to perform in a busy street to strangers who may not cast you a second glance, to paraphrase Christie Hennessey: unnoticed by the critics, not a star but giving your heart to every show. Ignore all that. The real challenge is the by-laws.
Dublin City Council regulates buskers the way Mark Zuckerberg thinks the EU regulates Facebook: a campaign of bureaucracy designed to curtail free speech (or banjo playing or fire-eating or whatever your oeuvre). In its wisdom, the council requires that you can only perform for two hours in the one location.
After two hours you can move to a new one. However the new location can’t be within 100 yards of the last spot. In either location you must have a repertoire that you can perform for 30 minutes without repetition (I assume this only applies to singers: juggling and fire-eating are art forms rooted in repetition “and for my next trick, I shall eat fire . . . again!”)
The by-laws don’t specify if you can repeat the same 30 minutes when you walk down the street, but they do specify that you can’t endanger the public or be racist (this is why you so rarely see knife-throwers saying “Oy, Yank! Catch this!”). Nor can you be too successful – if the crowd you draw blocks the street you have to call it quits. You can remain in place, but you can’t perform until the crowd disperses.
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