my city now wants a $75 permit to busk on main street

so the council quietly passed this thing in august and it showed up in one of the local news feeds this week honestly if you play music on the sidewalk downtown you now need a $75 annual permit. you also have to stay 50 feet from any business entrance and stay under 'conversational volume', whatever that means... there's a guy who plays saxophone outside the hardware store every saturday and he's been doing it for like 11 years. nobody ever complained i asked him about it and he said he's supposed to register a 'performance zone' online now. the guy uses a flip phone... the 50 feet

"conversational volume" for a saxophone lol. good luck with that. permit fees for buskers have been challenged in court before though. look up Berger v City of Seattle, the 9th circ

"conversational volume" for a saxophone lol.

yeah Berger is the Seattle Center one, the 9th circuit en banc struck down the performer permit and badge rule back in 2009. our council either never read it or is counting on nobody bothering to sue over a sax player the decibel limit will probably survive though, those usually do, and "conversational volume" is about as vague as they come

wait is your city actually in the 9th circuit though? Berger only binds the west coast states, so if youre anywhere else the council might have more room than you think 😬 still pretty wild to charge $75 for a guy playing wonderwall outside a coffee shop. also "conversational volume" next to a bus stop is basically nothing lol somebody go to the next council meeting and play sax during public

the 50 feet

got a link to the actual ordinance or just the news feed blurb? "quietly passed" usually means it was on a public agenda nobody read pull the council minutes from august and search for "busking" or "amplified sound". half the time it only covers amps and the acoustic guys are fine. and before this turns into a council-bashing thread, i'm out if it does lol

lowkey lol "quietly passed" means it went up as agenda item 14b at 9:40pm on a tuesday. ours did the same thing with sidewalk chalk once, which i still say counts as tasteful vandalism and therefore art. but yeah check whether it only covers amps. if you play acoustic you might be fine, and $75 a year isnt the end of the world compared to getting moved along by a cop every saturday there was a guy here who played saw with a violin bow and i'd personally have paid his permit just to keep him around

omg a saw player!! those are so underrated... the warbly sound makes me think of those old theremin sci fi soundtracks lol. the band Neutral Milk Hotel had a singing saw on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and i'm still not over it

anyway yeah $75 a year is honestly pretty fair if it means no more cops bugging you, but i'd check whether it's a yearly permit or per season i paid for a farmers market vendor thing once thinking it was annual and it ran out in like 3 months. totally my fault for not reading it (i was too busy with my telescope phase, then my ukulele phase, then sourdough... you see the pattern lol)

also fun fact!! if you busk at night you can point people toward Saturn right now, it's up in the evening sky and looks amazing even in a cheap scope. maybe tips go up if you throw in a free planet viewing?? ok maybe that's just me

we have a little guy who plays violin outside the Publix on Saturdays lowkey sweetest thing, Tyler always makes me give him a dollar i'd hate for him to get chased off over $75 but i guess if it keeps the actual troublemakers away it's not the worst thing!! i'd also ask if they make you stay in certain spots... ngl our parks department did that with the pickleball courts and now everybody fights over the two "good" ones... and of course nobody follows the paddle rotation sign anyway... Just my two cents!!

designated spots are honestly the bigger deal than the $75. honestly if they only mark like 3 spots on main st you'll get the same fight as your pickleball courts, except with guitar cases. check if the permit is per year or per day too, thats a huge difference

fwiw permit rules for street performers have lost in

wait yeah the Seattle one!! berger v. city of Seattle, i think 2009?? the court threw out a lot of the Seattle Center rules for street performers, including the permit and badge requirement... i only know that because i went down a rabbit hole one night when i was supposed to be cleaning my telescope lol. so it might be worth asking the city what happens if you just play without one

also i forgot to finish my farmers market story last time classic me basically i paid for one season and assum

we have a little guy who plays violin outside the Publix on Saturdays lowkey sweetest thing, Tyler always makes me give him a dollar i'd hate for him to get chased off over $75 but i guess if it keeps the actual troublemakers away it's not the worst thing!

aww thats adorable!! $75 for a permit seems like a lot for a kid who's probably making like twelve bucks and a granola bar... tell Tyler to keep the dollars coming lol. also random but a violinist was the first person to spot Uranus!! William Herschel was a musician before he got into astronomy (i think i've told this story on here before... my brain is just a pile of trivia)

tbh

check if the permit is per year or per day too, thats a huge difference

fwiw permit rules for street performers have lost in

lol "my pickleball courts" like i personally own them. but yeah 3 spots means the same accordion guy camps the good one at 6am every day forever at least guitar cases are quieter than pickleball, barely

scruffy_pockets NO. the accordion guy?? camping the good spot every single day

designated spots are honestly the bigger deal than the $75

lol the guy with the bagpipes is gonna camp spot #1 at 6am like a retiree at the pickleball courts. tbh i'd rather they skip the marked spots completely and just say "stay 50 ft apart." my cousin got a $40 ticket once for playing kazoo two feet outside his little chalk box. tbh thats not regulation thats a hopscotch dispute