Busking in Downtown Detroit?

**jmpatrick** · August-02-21, 10:07 AM

Is busking allowed in Downtown Detroit?

Is a permit required?

**drjeff** · August-02-21, 10:25 AM

There are people doing it outside Comerica Park every time the Tigers play. Don't know about permits but I doubt they are enforced if even required.

**Ray1936** · August-02-21, 11:04 AM

For us old dodders who are out of it, WTF is 'busking'?????

**jmpatrick** · August-02-21, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

For us old dodders who are out of it, WTF is 'busking'?????

Term has been around for probably a hundred years.

It's street musicians and performers.

**Trumpeteer** · August-02-21, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by jmpatrick

Term has been around for probably a hundred years.

It's street musicians and performers.

NEVER heard the term and I'm 68.

**jmpatrick** · August-02-21, 11:50 AM

Looks like it goes back 150 years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_performance

**401don** · August-02-21, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by jmpatrick

Is busking allowed in Downtown Detroit?

Is a permit required?

It should be outlawed everywhere. Creapier than clowns.

**jmpatrick** · August-02-21, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by 401don

It should be outlawed everywhere. Creapier than clowns.

Someone strumming an acoustic guitar on the sidewalk is creepier than clowns?

**softailrider** · August-02-21, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

For us old dodders who are out of it, WTF is 'busking'?????

It’s just another term for a person who is an attention whore.

**easycomeeasygo** · August-02-21, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by 401don

It should be outlawed everywhere. Creapier than clowns.

Originally Posted by softailrider

It’s just another term for a person who is an attention whore.

Wow! I guess I'm overruled but how broken is our city that we have lost appreciation for one of the purest forms of performance? Have you not been stopped dead in your tracks upon hearing some melody or voice reverberating down an alley? Whether here on the river or in another city in a subway, this experience is one of the few aspects of city life that I can't even get cynical about.

Don't get me wrong, most public music is played to appeal to the masses and according to current commercial tastes. Most buskers are forgettable, sure, but when it's good - it's really good [[and novel and temporary and arguably free).

Kinda at a loss reading these opinions. I normally see where y'all are coming from but this one got to me. Get out and find the Detroit Party Marching Band or that guy with a saxophone on the river and try to keep your dollars in your pocket! Go to Eastern Market this Sat. and tell me that short girl with a guitar is whoring for attention.

Creepy? Fine. Maybe sometimes. Fortunately they screen corporate concerts for all creepy performers and don't have teams of people scouting for teenagers the bands find attractive. Oh wait.

**jcole** · August-02-21, 02:10 PM

"Busking" is the term for any kind of street performance, not just mimes or clowns. It refers to singers, musicians, actors; whatever. And there is nothing creepy about it. A guy playing folk music on a guitar on the street in Greektown with his guitar case open for tips is a busker. Gee, people, enjoy the performances. It's art. 6th Street in Denver used to have buskers all up and down and people stopping and listening and dancing in the streets.

**Ray1936** · August-02-21, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

"Busking" is the term for any kind of street performance, not just mimes or clowns. It refers to singers, musicians, actors; whatever. And there is nothing creepy about it. A guy playing folk music on a guitar on the street in Greektown with his guitar case open for tips is a busker. Gee, people, enjoy the performances. It's art. 6th Street in Denver used to have buskers all up and down and people stopping and listening and dancing in the streets.

Thank you, jcole. Never heard the term before and just wanted to expand my horizons, or some such goal.

**Gistok** · August-02-21, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by softailrider

It’s just another term for a person who is an attention whore.

This comment is odd coming from someone who is a follower of probably the greatest attention whore of modern time.

**K-slice** · August-02-21, 04:09 PM

Let's call it what it is in Detroit; some guy banging on plastic Home Depot buckets non stop...

I agree that street performances are a part of city life, a guy playing a sax on the corner, street magicians, mimes, that dude who's all painted silver and dances.

But those bucket drummers are just plain annoying....

**jcole** · August-02-21, 04:40 PM

It's "busker" not "bucketer"....

Originally Posted by K-slice

Let's call it what it is in Detroit; some guy banging on plastic Home Depot buckets non stop...

I agree that street performances are a part of city life, a guy playing a sax on the corner, street magicians, mimes, that dude who's all painted silver and dances.

But those bucket drummers are just plain annoying....

**401don** · August-02-21, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

"Busking" is the term for any kind of street performance, not just mimes or clowns. It refers to singers, musicians, actors; whatever. And there is nothing creepy about it. A guy playing folk music on a guitar on the street in Greektown with his guitar case open for tips is a busker. Gee, people, enjoy the performances. It's art. 6th Street in Denver used to have buskers all up and down and people stopping and listening and dancing in the streets.

Okay, the creepy thing was a joke, kind of. I just find most of them have very little talent, which is why they are on the street I guess, and are rather annoying. Mimes however, are indeed creepy. I would like to put them in an actual box.

**softailrider** · August-02-21, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by easycomeeasygo

Wow! I guess I'm overruled but how broken is our city that we have lost appreciation for one of the purest forms of performance? Have you not been stopped dead in your tracks upon hearing some melody or voice reverberating down an alley? Whether here on the river or in another city in a subway, this experience is one of the few aspects of city life that I can't even get cynical about.

Don't get me wrong, most public music is played to appeal to the masses and according to current commercial tastes. Most buskers are forgettable, sure, but when it's good - it's really good [[and novel and temporary and arguably free).

Kinda at a loss reading these opinions. I normally see where y'all are coming from but this one got to me. Get out and find the Detroit Party Marching Band or that guy with a saxophone on the river and try to keep your dollars in your pocket! Go to Eastern Market this Sat. and tell me that short girl with a guitar is whoring for attention.

Creepy? Fine. Maybe sometimes. Fortunately they screen corporate concerts for all creepy performers and don't have teams of people scouting for teenagers the bands find attractive. Oh wait.

I don't think there is anything wrong with street performers at all, I sometimes stop and watch them. I just don't think the majority have this innate desire to entertain people, I think the majority like the attention. Maybe the short girl at the Eastern Market doesn't want to get noticed. That's fine, I could care less, whatever makes her and the rest of her ilk happy is great.

**Midnight Rambler** · August-03-21, 05:06 AM

Busking has a place in society but city ordinances should regulate it. A short girl strumming an acoustic guitar without impeding the free flow of pedestrians on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the park? Fine. A four piece rock band setting their amps on 10 in a shopping district? Not fine. A foul-mouthed rapper shouting obscenities into a mic? Not fine. For that which is not fine there are appropriate venues where it is fine.

**Richard** · August-03-21, 06:57 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

This comment is odd coming from someone who is a follower of probably the greatest attention whore of modern time.

must of worked sense you spent time to create an everlasting momento

How is that for a short irrelevant post?

**Gistok** · August-03-21, 08:13 AM

Thank you Richard. I even read your whole post.

And yes... that was a cheap shot on my part.

**Jimaz** · August-03-21, 12:58 PM

Here's a busker:

Estas Tonne - The Song of the Golden Dragon - Stadtspektakel Landshut 2011

That ought to win some hearts and minds.

**stasu1213** · August-03-21, 03:33 PM

I dont have a problem with Buskin or whatever it is called. Many major city has them in their downtown areas. I am more concern about the aggressive panhandlers than I am about someone beating on a plastic upside down can or lowing a horn. Another bigger nusiance are the men in the purple shirts or so called african gowns calling white people devils while these guys themselve are probably living off the system

**Baselinepunk** · August-03-21, 04:07 PM

we need more arts in the streets!!

buskers are no different than the captialist pig dog entrepenuer -- both are out husslin' to make a living.

as as usual, the former is poo poo'd and latter is worshipped.

"... greed, is good" -- G. Gekko, 1987

"Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States." -- R. Reagan

**EGrant** · August-03-21, 05:21 PM

In cities like London, where the underground and streets would get overrun with buskers, regulations and permits are necessary. But in Detroit, where busking is like two guys who play the bucket and an occasional guitar player with an amp, I don't think we need to go down the regulatory path quite yet.

**KnnNike** · August-03-21, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by Midnight Rambler

Busking has a place in society but city ordinances should regulate it. A short girl strumming an acoustic guitar without impeding the free flow of pedestrians on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the park? Fine. A four piece rock band setting their amps on 10 in a shopping district? Not fine. A foul-mouthed rapper shouting obscenities into a mic? Not fine. For that which is not fine there are appropriate venues where it is fine.

I think this is the key point. A lot of people who live in Detroit seem to be of the mentality that the louder and more vulgar your music is, the better. I would love to see busking in the downtown area. But if the people driving on the streets are any indication, such busking would come in the form of eardrum-damaging, cringing rap music that will send folks fleeing from the area holding their ears.