FILE PHOTO

Image Credit: PEXELS

With summer right around the corner, buskers in the Okanagan and Kamloops are getting ready to bring their art to the streets, but there are different approaches to regulating these public performances.

Kelowna and Penticton have varying restrictions for how they allow people to express themselves through busking. The two cities both have guidelines for buskers about where they can perform, but Penticton has barriers for who is allowed to perform.

The cities both have designated Busk Stops spaced around their respective downtown centres where buskers are allowed to set up and perform. Penticton has six such locations and Kelowna has 10.

The major difference is in Kelowna buskers don’t need a permit to perform while in Penticton buskers have to pay $115 for a season-long licence, or $44 for a monthly licence. On top of the permit fees, buskers in Penticton have to audition and city staff decide who has the talent to perform in town.

Vernon has its own set of bylaws for buskers and street performers where anyone can pay $10 to apply for a six-month temporary street performance license. According to the City of Vernon's website the licensing department has only issued one street performance license for a guitarist in 2017. 

Kamloops voted against a busker bylaw in 2019, but the city has busk stops put up by the Kamloops Buskers Festival to encourage street performers. Street performers in Kamloops can still get tickets for noise complaints under the city's Good Neighbour bylaw. The City of Kamloops was not immediately able to comment on whether it has a current busking bylaw, or any plans to introduce one.

Owen Wood and his friend Jared Hanenberg are known as 70X7, a folk rock band that has been busking in Kelowna since 2019.

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Promotional photography for Kelowna folk rock duo 70X7.

Image Credit: 70X7

The pair has been playing music together since they were kids and said busking was an important part of their musical pursuit.

“As we got older we thought; why don’t we try to do this for money? So we started off playing in breweries and busking,” Wood said. “Busking was great for us when we were first starting out. It let us find our sound, find out what people actually liked, it helped us grow as a band.”

Busking in Kelowna used to be regulated by Festivals Kelowna and performers required a permit, but the city has moved onto an informal approach to regulating buskers.

“One-hundred dollars is a lot of money, our (permit) was only $30,” Wood said.

Wood said those permits were rarely enforced anyways.

“We got the permits and we usually played at the stops, but sometimes the really nice spots would be taken so we would go to one that wasn’t the best. We realized that it didn’t matter a whole lot. There was one situation where there was a performer playing at the best Busk Stop and he didn’t have the licence or permit and the Festivals Kelowna lady was there and she said we can’t really do anything. So we figured what’s the point of following the rules,” Wood said. 

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“Are you really going to kick someone out of a busk stop for not paying the $30? Probably not, so why even have it in the first place?” Wood said.

Kelowna used to have a similar rule to Penticton's about auditioning buskers, but Wood said busking is like an industry where the market regulates itself.

“I don’t know if the audition is worth doing, for the amount of time it takes up and the people that have to facilitate the audition and the annoyance it is for the musicians. If you’re quote ‘not good enough’ to be a busker you’ll probably notice when you aren’t making any money and probably stop anyway,” he said.

“If you are making money and you aren’t very good then that means people are still enjoying it,” Wood said.

While Wood said eliminating permits and giving buskers more freedom makes sense for cities and artists, but, he said busking shouldn’t be a free-for-all.

“Obviously there is a line if you are totally disrupting everything but I feel like the general public for the most part appreciates there being music when you’re walking around downtown. You can clearly see whether you are improving the environment or not based on the amount of money you’re making doing it.”

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