Advertisement

Music

BuskerFest and busking branches outside of the downtown core

BUSKERFEST at Woodbine Park (Coxwell at Lake Shore), September 2-5, various times. Pwyc. torontobuskerfest.com. See listing.

Now in its 17th year, the Toronto International BuskerFest is saying goodbye to downtown and heading east.

While previous instalments of the fundraiser for Epilepsy Toronto saw trapeze artists, magicians and troubadours delighting onlookers around Nathan Phillips Square, St. Lawrence Market and Yonge between Queen and College, this year the fest is relocating to Woodbine Park.

The reason for the move is financial, but it’s related to the expense of running an event on Yonge Street, not to Scotiabank’s withdrawal of its 15-year-long sponsorship late last fall. (The corporation still funds Epilepsy Toronto and its programming.) However, the relocation is also part of a larger trend toward pushing busking out of the centre of the city.

In May, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) proposed a ban on busking at Toronto’s busiest, most lucrative intersection: Yonge and Dundas. She argued that buskers create accessibility problems, clogging and slowing pedestrian traffic, and are a danger to public safety.

The motion ultimately failed, and council split on how to take action. Had it passed, busking would’ve been banned there until the city came up with a strategy to ease pedestrian congestion after reviewing the current busking bylaws. That ban would have affected performers of all kinds, though not the street preachers who also congregate on those corners.

“How can [the preachers] get away with doing what they’re doing and not also be an issue?” asks Gideon Steinberg (former drummer for Soupcans, Toronto Homicide Squad), who busks with a djembe and two small synths during the fairer months of the year under the name klnr. After a few noisy performances last year at Yonge and Dundas and Yonge and Bloor, Steinberg was told by a bylaw officer not to return until he had a permit.

A trip up to East York and $43.21 later, he was set. No audition required, unlike at subway stations or Harbourfront, which have their own licence fees. Subways in particular are a good year-round alternative for buskers, but the extra cost, audition process and lead time present barriers. (The next audition period isn’t till 2018, and the current fee is $197.50.)

Steinberg compares attempts to modify the busker licensing structure to the costs that are pricing festivals like BuskerFest out of the downtown. “The city is making things like access to public spaces more difficult, be it permits for corporate ventures like BuskerFest or independent artists,” he says, adding that “[Toronto] is not supportive of very many alternative forms of expression, especially ones that occupy public spaces.”

Negotiating what intersections are best for performances is a balancing act all its own, says Christina Wong, a journalist and playwright with a PhD in music who specializes in underground busking programs in Toronto and London, England. Wong feels it’s a boon to the city if BuskerFest can bring entertainers to a part of town they wouldn’t otherwise be able to sustain themselves in.

“Obviously it’s nice to have busking in the downtown core,” she says. “But I also think it’s nice to have it in other parts of the city it encourages folks to explore a section of Toronto they may not have been to.”

BuskerFest’s organizers are optimistic, and excited to shape their own festival space with performances by Brampton’s AHI, beatboxer Scott Jackson and the carnivalesque Dr. Draw & the Strange Parade.

The fest’s entertainment and marketing director, Mackenzie Muldoon, likens Woodbine Park to a blank slate. “It allows us to accentuate the great performers and gives us the space to bring in food, a beer garden and fun games for kids. It means we can focus on the charity element.

“We feel our festival can stand on its own and is worth being its own destination. People will want to come to Woodbine Park just for us.”

music@nowtoronto.com | @therewasnosound

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted