Busking may be a familiar sight on Sydney’s George Street, but most key spots for musicians have now been banned.<\/p>\n
The City of Sydney told registered buskers on Monday the bulk of the CBD strip was no longer available to them, effective immediately, after a new code and policy was implemented.<\/p>\n
Under the changes, no busking is permitted on George Street between Circular Quay and Haymarket except for six spots, limited to an hour per busker per day on a first-in basis.<\/p>\n
Buskers had previously been allowed to perform anywhere that was safe to do so, but now only one spot is available near Sydney Town Hall.<\/p>\n
At nearby Pitt Street Mall, there is now only one spot for “low impact” acts, like a performer playing an instrument.<\/p>\n
U\u0304la Venckus took to social media after receiving the council email out of the blue with no explanation attached.<\/p>\n
“It was super random, I was actually on a train heading into the city to go busking and I read it a couple of times and thought I must be misinterpreting,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The rules have gone from practically being able to busk anywhere to [an] email introducing new places, which have always existed, they’re just now the only places.”<\/p>\n
Ms Venckus, who has busked around the CBD for about six years, said the decision was contradictory.<\/p>\n
“You see on social media how [the City of Sydney] continuously talk about supporting the arts and the events they do like Vivid,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
U\u0304la Venckus found out about the changes after a “random” email on Monday.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n
“And then you have something like busking, which is kind of like the rawest form of musicianship and artistry being stripped away.<\/p>\n
“If you truly supported the arts, you would support the only way that art is accessible to every single person, which is busking.”<\/p>\n
In a statement, a City of Sydney spokesperson said the council “strongly supports busking”.<\/p>\n
“We continue to permit buskers to perform on most public land across our local area,” they said.<\/p>\n
“In a small number of high-traffic areas like George Street and Pitt Street Mall, it is necessary for us to manage busking activity to balance public safety and harmonious shared use of the spaces.<\/p>\n
“Not all locations along George Street are safe for buskers to set up.”<\/p>\n
‘We want to bring music to the people’<\/p>\n
With the limited spots, Ms Venckus worried about competition and buskers getting a shot.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, people are going to start flocking to these main spots because there’s no other choice,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said she wished there was “some kind of discussion or a conversation so that we could have an understanding”.<\/p>\n
“We feel like we just have no voice in this,” Ms Venckus said.<\/p>\n
“We want to bring music to the people of the streets and we want to do it safely and we want to work with council to be able to do that.”<\/p>\n
The council spokesperson said the code ensured “fair access” and “limited overlap” as well as public safety, and was approved in August.<\/p>\n
They said all registered buskers were notified about a public exhibition in June, and were “encouraged to leave feedback on the proposed changes”.<\/p>\n
Despite the email to buskers saying there would “no longer be” two low\/high impact busking sites at Pitt Street Mall which would “now only accommodate” one spot, the spokesperson said there “were no changes to the number of busking pitches in Pitt Street Mall”.<\/p>\n
Some say ban is news to them<\/p>\n
Charlie Gibson, who performs as Charlie Montgomery, just returned from London and has spent the past four days busking on George Street.<\/p>\n
“[I] had a change of heart about music and took a year off and realised that absence makes the heart grow fonder, so that’s why I’m getting back into it now,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said busking was “the best thing I ever did for putting myself out there but for my skill set as well” and only heard about the changes from the ABC in between songs.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said outside Town Hall Station.<\/p>\n
“Some of the greatest musical moments between musicians and the public \u2026 it just brings the community together and I don’t see why you would want to get rid of that.”<\/p>\n
Charlie Gibson says there is “nothing really else like” George Street in Sydney. (ABC News: Millie Roberts)<\/p>\n
Mr Gibson, who started busking in the area in 2019, said it was “where we gravitate towards as musicians”.<\/p>\n
“Especially with Pitt Street Mall there as the pinnacle of busking spots, George Street is a really good way to throw yourself out there,” he said.<\/p>\n
Further down George Street, James Carlton Lamb was busking as he had been since 2023.<\/p>\n
The musical theatre performer said he was drawn to how “lively” the strip was.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James Carlton Lamb says George Street is a “hustling, bustling” spot for buskers. (ABC News: Monish Nand)<\/p>\n
“It’s got many different cultures and nationalities of people, it’s a hustling, bustling place,” Mr Lamb said.<\/p>\n
“Many tourists come from holidays and it really does have a lot of energy.”<\/p>\n
Mr Lamb was also not told of the ban and said it was “pretty sad because George Street is an absolutely classic spot for buskers” \u2014 and for some, a vital source of income.<\/p>\n
“Supporting the arts means letting [people] busk in good places that people will appreciate,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I just think it would be a really sad thing to take away.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Busking may be a familiar sight on Sydney’s George Street, but most key spots for musicians have now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[39629,64,63,17652,146777,2603,146776,2467,26458,134,146775,136,36005,146778,2733,670],"class_list":["post-247118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-artists","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ban","tag-busking","tag-cbd","tag-city-of-sydney","tag-council","tag-creativity","tag-entertainment","tag-george-street","tag-music","tag-musicians","tag-nightlife","tag-nsw","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}