Busking – value for money entertainment?

In my last post I mentioned that Streets of Play is Durham’s official ‘International Buskers Festival’. For most people the word ‘busking’ tends to conjure an image of a local musician on a street corner playing popular songs on a guitar, but actually busking is one of the oldest professions going and it comes in many forms.

Busking is probably the fairest form of entertainment in the world, it doesn’t matter who you are with a busker, everyone’s welcome to enjoy the show. After the performance the busker will more than likely pass their hat and you pay only what you feel the performance was worth. You might say that as an industry it has at its heart some amazing principles – democracy, fairness, and most importantly trust – the buskers trust that if they entertain you, you will support them and if you support them they can keep travelling the world to entertain people. It’s a formula that’s worked for hundreds if not thousands of years and with the Streets of Play Durham is lucky enough each year to welcome some of the very best from across the globe. So if you’re bringing the kids into town to enjoy the show bring some gold or something to fold because hat’s off to the buskers – your donations keep them on the streets.

Nick Malyan – Festival Durham

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