Busking and the Law II

Tonight I spent a rather tense half hour with a cop watching my set, until I realized he was there to flirt with a shopgirl and not to shift me from the pitch. I've also had some very stressful moments playing for polizie who were just enjoying the show. And I've had the other result, too, where he or she was politely waiting for a pause to tell me to go away.

There's a reason my busking is so dependent on law enforcement good will. I don't typically perform in cities that have many rules in the books, since Italy is big on red tape. Without those explicit laws, however, there are two grey areas in which I operate when I busk.

The first hinges on the word "ambulatory". Most cities permit "ambulante" performance but forbid "fisso" ("fixed"). Since the dulcimer rests on the ground rather than my person (though I've seen Romanians play it thus, it seems a back problem waiting to happen), any given polizia can decide I'm unsuitable, as has happened to me in Pistoia, Sulmona, and Ferrara.

The second grey are is regarding CD sales. Many Italian cities have expedited / negligible permit regulations for handmade goods, in respect for artisanal production and heritage. The question here is whether any given city I play has those laws, and whether any given cop sees my recordings as applying (I've had issues here in Reggio Emilia, Padua, and previously in Brescia).

The golden rule, of course, is don't annoy the neighbors: street performance takes a back seat to any shop or resident that finds it objectionable. This morning I had a very courteous shop keeper ask me to move up the road because my music was clashing with that playing in her shop, and offered me a €5 note in compensation. I know which block here not to play at all, having been told in years past there's a local artist living above who is quick to call the cops. And this isn't much different than anywhere else: a New Orleans gallery owner once combined the two tactics, threatening me with cops and then tipping me $5 when I repositioned myself.

It's my biggest source of stress, aside from the weather, but also such a huge rush when things go well that I'm not sure I'd want it any other way.