Busking in Maastricht

Leaving Belgium, Maastricht was my next stop, and a promising busking location as I had read blogs from other buskers about it.

I arrived there fairly early on on a friday afternoon, so after checking in at the Youth Hostel StayOkay just alongside the river and not far from the town center, I had time to go out and try out a first evening busk.

I found a great spot immediately right at the entrance of the old town, on the street that continues from the walking bridge. There was lots of passage and once again a closed store location made for an excellent spot!

Maastricht didn't disapoint one bit: after the first song, which was Out on the weekend by Neil Young, a crowd had gathered around in a circle, applauded at the end of the song, and money started flowing in! I played there for about an hour and a half and had one of my best busking sessions to date :) Things seemed very promising for the week end to come.

As usual I hadn't really inquired about the rules for busking in Maastricht: I had read stories from other buskers and nobody seemed to know exactly how it works. As usual nobody seemed to bother with a permit and didn't seem to have had any issues, although some said you needed one and it cost about 20 euros, which is a lot!

So anyhow I went back the second day, it was a saturday, to set up my busking rig in the same street as the previous evening, only a bit higher up so as not to bother too much the same shops twice. Again a closed  shop provided a great spot for me.

I'd hardly started setting up that some kind of street patrol guys (not cops) came and asked me if I had a permit. In this kind of situation the only rule is to play nice, and say that basically you didn't know a permit was required to play there. If you are nice about it there usually is no problem, and all you have to do is ak where and how to get the permit, and pack up your stuff. These guys were nice about it and so there was no problem, although they told me that the permit in fact does cost 20 euros. This sort of put me off a bit, but then I thought well maybe this is worth it if I make as much momey as the day before. But the real setback came when I asked where to go for the permit, which is basically the townhall, and they told me it was closed on weekends.

My week end of busking in Maastricht was thus over, as I couldn't get the permit before monday, and monday I had to get a move on towards Germany. This left me fustrated, mostly because the busking would have been great probably, but still I couldn't take the risk to go back without the permit if ever I fell on the same guys again, for this time I would get a fine! (I don't know how much)

It is a matter of luck really, but I learned my lesson in Maastricht: for a big and potentially profitable city on weekends, whenerver it is possible, I will enquire about permits and stuff before hands. Had it fallen in the middle of the week it would have been fine and I would have been able to get the permit, but as it turned out...

Still I got a great busking session out of it anyway, and then made the most of it visiting the town and its surrounding during the week end, thus spending most of my busking sessions earnings, but hey, that's what it's there for right ;-)

Busking in Liege

The next stop in Belgium on my summer busking tour was Liege.
After arriving there in the late afternoon and checking in the local HI Youth Hostel I went on to do my research for a nice busking spot on the next day. I found a couple of walking streets right in the center of town that would seem to do just fine. On the one, called rue du pont d'isle, there was an abandonned shop location wich seemed just about perfect, at the crossroads with another street. Acoustics seemed promising too. So I decided I would try this spot in priority the next day, provided that it would be in the shade in the late afternoon.

I usually busk either during launch time, say between 11h and 13h, because then people come out of their offices and into the street to grab some launch, and so they have both a bit of change on them and some time to relax and enjoy the music. This time I chose my second favourite  time of the day, somewhere between 15h and 18h, which is time of busy shopping and also snack time, so again people have a bit of change to spare maybe ;-) But there I choose it because my elected busking spot was in the shade, and that counts a lot!!!

Busking was good, a bit better than in namur, and I must have made around 35 euros for a bit less than two hours busking. I never do more than two hours per day really because of my voice: I have no amplification and it can get quite tough on the voice singing in open spaces like these, above a cajon, a tambourine and a guitar ;-)

So anyways I would recommend busking in Liege, in either one of the main walking shopping streets. Once again I didn't enquire about a permit or anything but it was ok, I didn't meet any police or anything and had no complaints from local shops, so that' s good!

Busking in Namur

The first stop of my busking tour was the city of Namur in Belgium, where the rivers Sambre and Meuse meet.
I didn't find much information about busking in Namur before getting there but I knew there was the old town north of the river, and usually old towns have walking streets, which are the best for busking, as you have much passage and little noise from traffic. Plus if they want to people can stop and listen very easily.

I happened to arrive there at the beginning of the week, and so my busking days were on monday and tuesday, which is far from ideal. As I feared the streets weren't too crowded, and as it happens the most crowded shopping streets wasn't a walking one, which is saft for that was where most of the people were, as usual.

The only other place that seemed worth it was a square next to a church right in the middle of the old town, with people gathered around terasses for drinks. Normally this wouldn't be my first choice for two reasons: the first reason is that squares are usually quite noisy and there aren't any acoustics to take advantage of when doing an non-implified gig; the second one is that I don't like to feel like I'm imposing on people or anything, and whenever possible I respect their right to drink or eat in silence if they wish to do so, after all maybe they don't care much for music and are looking for a bit of calm and quiet.

But this time I made an exception for I was out of options, and the square seemed big enough so that my acoustic set wouldn't be so loud as to annoy anyone. I was actually worried that it wasn't going to be loud enough!

This was a tough start to my busking tour: I didn't get anything at all for my first 10 to 15 minutes of busking, which is kind of tough! But as any busker will tell you the key to successfull busking is patience and perseverance: you can't let this kind of situation bring you down!

And finally after a while money started to flow in regularly and it was an honest session in terms of income: Although I didn't count exactly how much I made I guessed around 25 euros for a bit less than 2 hours, wich is ok, without being great. I even got one of the wiaters at the tables of the terasses to contribute, which comforted me in the idea that what I was doing was appreciated, and that I wasn't being a nuisance basically!!! Who knows I might even have brought in some extra customers for them too, as quite a few people came to sat down at the tables closest to me to listen in :)

A nice thing about this particular gig too was this other busking girl I met passing buy, can't remember her name though I'm terrible at that, who sat in to jam a little. We did a couple of blues improvisations as she had a fantastic voice for it!

So all in all Namur turned out just fine for busking, I didn't enquire about permits and stuff like that to busk and it was ok, no one bothered me or said anything. I think it can be an even better busking location on the weekend.

Folk Vagabond Bicycle Tour 2013 (following Eurovelo 3)

I have finally decided on a route for this summer's "One girl band kind of deal" busking trip! I'll be going along Eurovélo route 3 from Ohain in France (my hometown) to Trondheim in Norway starting mid July 2013, which is in just 2 weeks from now! 

The idea is to busk (play music in the streets) in the town I'll be traveling through, and sort of finance the whole trip that way. A travelling on a shoestring kind of deal really! 

Below is a map that shows the main routes for the busking trip so you can get a broad idea of the itinerary. And who knows, maybe we'll meet along the way!






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