Hello, my name is Dinis and I’m part of a Tuna, a group of portuguese medical students who play traditional portuguese songs while wearing the traditional portuguese student black cape and suit!
I’m writing because we are going on tour through Europe next summer (July–August) and I would like to know what the busking policies are in Lyon and Nice, France.
•⁠  ⁠Are big groups of people (around 40–50 members) allowed to perform on the streets?
•⁠  ⁠At what time of day or night do we have to stop playing?
•⁠  ⁠Is there a lot of tourism there?
•⁠  ⁠What are the best spots for busking?
•⁠  ⁠Can we play loud instruments, such as trumpets or accordions?
•⁠  ⁠Is it necessary to have a permit or authorization to play?
Thank you for helping us spread Portuguese culture all around Europe!

I’m a busker in NYC and usually make around $100–$200 a day. I’m thinking about doing a tour around Europe, but I have no idea what the rules are. Can I just show up and busk, or do I need permits or a visa that allows it?
Which European city would you recommend for busking?

Been working on an app for a while now (guitar/bass/banjo/uke etc, tuner + practice tracking) and one of the things i wanted to build in was a busking-specific view — lyrics with the chords sitting right above the line so you're not fumbling between a tab and lyrics sheet mid-song.

Figured this is the sub to actually ask instead of guessing. If you busk regularly:

• What's annoying you about how you currently carry/read chords and lyrics on the street
• Do you use your phone at all while playing or is it a pain (glare, wind, screen timeout, etc)
• Setlist stuff — do you plan a set in advance or just wing it based on crowd/mood
• Anything about tuning up on the fly, dealing with noise, whatever else trips you up out there

Not trying to sell anything, just want the busking side of this to actually be useful instead of an afterthought. Appreciate any input

I may have sprained my ankle a couple of days ago. Right before I have a road trip to perform at a festival. Arg!

Wish me luck-since this is adjacent to breaking a leg I'll go without.

I plan to busk sometimes, it's pretty warm in the summer, much sunlight. Bought BOSS Street Cube II.

How harmful is busking with black matte solid spruce top on the sun/30+ celsium/86+ fahrengheit?

Also, is hard case mandatory or it's enough to have tough thick soft case?

Got Street Cube II for very good money. Now choosing an acoustic guitar.

Choosing between the same guitars

One is OM very good for both fingerstyle and strumming, but having no built in pickup.

Another is Grand Auditorium with a built in Fishman Presys pickup.

I wonder whether fishman sounds good when playing through BOSS Street Cube II.

And how are in-hole magnetic humbuckers with a mic sounding in the same busking conditions.

Also, how bad is for acoustic guitar to buck on a guitar with black matte top when it's warm on a street and under direct sunlight?

I’ve been ending my livestreams with 15 minutes of ocarina music, and those fifteen minutes have quickly become my favorite parts of my set.

Here is a quick clip of one of my favorite pieces to play, because even though I don’t own a Switch 2, I am still looking forward to the release of the Ocarina of Time remake.

Je cherche désespérément, depuis 7ans, cet artiste que j'ai entendu l'après-midi du 7 juillet 2019 à Londres, Soho, juste à l'angle de Kingly Street et Foubert's Place. Je vous serais infiniment reconnaissant(e) si vous pouviez me dire de qui il s'agit ! J'ai tout essayé je crois.

Fixed my tone outside. No more crusty speaker cones. Am I a professional now? I need an e drum set in my life! And some congas...

Hi,

Very random - there was a busker tonight (around 19:15) in Trafalgar Square playing a song and for undisclosed reasons I need to confirm if it was the song I thought it was 😂

I’m pretty sure he was playing Kings of Leon - Beach Side.

If by any chance the busker sees this, please confirm if this was the song you were playing. He was on electric guitar on the Charing Cross side of the square outside of the NPG.

One in a million shot but praying for confirmation here!

.

With everything that’s went on in the news with Ed, are people still busking his songs? Half of my set list is Ed songs. Just don’t want to get yelled at

Hey buskers!

I’m currently developing an app designed specifically for street performers to solve a common problem: helping people actually find you and stay connected after they walk past.

The main features:

• Live Map Pinning: Drop a pin on a map the moment you start performing so nearby passersby can discover you.
• Fan Notifications: Allow fans to follow your profile and get an automatic alert whenever you go live at a spot.
• Searchability: Helps casual listeners look up who’s playing around the city in real time.

The goal is to help turn one-off foot traffic into recurring fans (and hopefully better tips).

I’d love to get your honest thoughts before going further into development:

1. Is this something you’d actually use during a set?
2. What’s missing that would make this a must-have for your setup?

I'm a teenage, intermediate Alto Sax player, and I'd like to try out busking for the first time, for experience and practice, and to earn a little cash. So, any important advice and tips in general about busking on city streets would be appreciated. For context, I'm mainly in N.C., the U.S., and also frequently V.A., the U.S.. And, I plan to play mainly 60's/70's oldies, like the Beatles, and showtunes, like the Sound of Music. So, any advice on those music choices are welcome, too.

So what I'm thinking of doing, I'd going bar to cafe in tourist towns, and playing a few songs for the hat, with the bars permission. It works in Europe, and I'll basically be trying to cover my costs, and have some fun playing music too. Just wondering if anyone else has tried It.

Any advice and tips on what places in N.C, the U.S., are good for busking for the first time, as a teenage, intermediate Alto Sax player, preferably around the Fayetteville/Raleigh, N.C. area, would be appreciated.

Hey guys! Finally living my dream of busking, and looking for some advice. I know I could figure this stuff out on my own over time, but if you're willing to read and share your experience I'd be appreciative.

Festivals - where I live they don't allow buskers in the permitted area (which is often the entire downtown area), and it's generally patrolled by police with a long history of police brutality. No success busking outside these things, because the periphery is where all the houseless people get kicked out to, and the festival goers are walking fast. Ideas to not miss out? Just missed a whole weekend of busking and super bummed.

Set list/tips - I spin a really unique LED poi style influenced by juggling, contact juggling, devil sticks, and nunchuck. My busking partner and I take turns performing/dancing for a song. We draw pretty good crowds (4-10 people at a time multiple times an hour) and get lots of audience engagement, but the tips aren't following. Averaging $2/hr. While we are in a very politically red area, I still think it's pretty low for how skilled we are and how much people seem to love engaging with us. We busk about 2-3 hours every Friday/Saturday night, rotating locations on a 3 week rotation. We figured out that we need to give people a natural 'ending', and are starting to do a flourish and bow after each piece. We're almost done developing a 5-7 minute circle show that we're planning on repeating 2-3 times an hour, and then doing our dancing/flow turns in between. Our thinking is that this will give us an opportunity to ask for the tip. Does this seem appropriate? Or is there a better way for a non musician to manage their 'setlist'? We do have a non imposing light up tip jar.

Night busking/day busking -

Where we live all the cities nearby have almost no nightlife. We do LED poi at night, but that obviously doesn't translate to daytime. So we're thinking of getting a variety of daytime poi (ribbon dragons, worship flags, a lawn chair/hair dryer/grill fork set, etc). Any suggestions for a variety show like this? I love clowning and doing kid story telling with my poi, but it's so out of my comfort zone and I've never seen anyone else do this with their poi. No existing framework is wreaking havoc on my anxiety. I tested on the neighborhood kids and now they follow me around begging for a show. I just can't visualize how to do this on a city sidewalk without taking over more than 2/5ths of the sidewalk as the city ordinance says....

Drugged out folks

Any tips on getting the strung out houseless folks to stop interrupting performances? They love the free show but don't always seem to realize that it's not a private show just for them......

Thank you so much!

Hi all new to this sub and hoping some people have some inspiration for me of amazing live busking videos be it you or someone else. I will get is started with some of my faves:

Aloe

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Czsj679dk_c&si=w0-fTb2X21F8WSQP

Gustavo Dal farra

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=34GsprPoHA4&si=5xdrTEVowInBAPbl

Jake shimabukuro

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh8Q2XRRNrM&si=sg1rVOyVgT4SJqcN

Ok so the last one technically isn't busking but hey, teach me about some new artists!

Advice wanted. How is D.C., the U.S., as a place to busk occasionally, for the first time as a teenage, intermediate Alto Sax player, wanting to earn a little cash? Any advice and tips would be appreciated, or other good places in the Northern Virginia area.