The champion Niceol Blue, standing up for buskers rights in Galway, Ireland
As posted by Niceol Blue on Facebook:
Hi all - coming up to the wonderful Culture Night, please remember that the grassroots arts & culture on our streets are under threat. The Galway Buskers’ Community have been told that we may have a chance to get the bye-laws revoked come November, but only with public support behind us. Please sign and share this petition, we need your help! Thank you.
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Please support this. Gentrification underway in Galway. It was labeled a candidate for cultural capital in Europe and then the next thing the council does is paint the walls with the street art on it a grey colour and try and regulate the busking. It's a same-story-different-day scenario as I've seen happen all over the world. The people that come and make a name for the town are slowly pushed to the side and out of the way while the business owners capitalize on the reputation it had when the artists and musicians lived there. It's a contradiction really because in a few years everyone that visits realises that "it's not like it used to be." And the economy slumps in the area and then stagnates with these new laws and protections still in place.
Stupidity has many names. Gentrification of our expressionistic areas is one of them. Keep artistic and expressionist spaces open for what they become famous for.
Look at Fremantle in Western Australia a famous alternative destination south of Perth. I used to busk there all the time, it's how I made my living. I did crowd funding for my album in Fremantle:
Go there now when it's not a festival. You can hear the wind passing.
What a joke!
Look at Kreuzberg in Berlin. There's a sign up now that threatens buskers that use an amp or a brass instrument a 50,000 euro fine. This is because of one woman that lives in an apartment. Close to an area where music has been a part of the markets for years. This is an example of one person moves in to a cultural hub, makes a complaint actually changing the economy of an area.
In many places shop owners point their finger for lack of business at: buskers, street vendors and other street performers or street people; because we are easy targets.
It's a two way street, for sure, but this is happening in too many places. It's time to wake up to a world where we allow expression in all its forms because hey, it's a hell of a lot better than people killing each other.
Expression of emotional repression is paramount to the free flowing energy of a city or region. Places with open traditional music parties have the right idea with collective singing and dancing that is not based in religious belief. It's just expression. A necessary part of a well lubricated culture.
Busking is expression. We need it. Let the people sing.
In love,
Monty x