♪ ...Creatures flicker ♪
♪ Through a landscape painted black and blue and gray. ♪♪
-Busking is has always been
a constant in Seattle, you know.
Thanks to Jim Page, who 50 years ago,
challenged the laws that prohibited busking.
And since then, it's just been flourishing and growing.
We have a vibrant busking community
down at Pioneer Square, City Hall Park, Hing Hay,
Cal Anderson, Denny Park, Pike Place Market.
We have a lot of buskers in and around
the Seattle Center, Ballard Commons.
[ upbeat electric violin music ]
The Seattle Center
and the Pike Place Market have busking programs
that are independent of ours at Seattle Parks and Rec.
♪ I met a pretty gal at a fortune telling place. ♪♪
-We have a wide variety of cultures represented, too.
We actually have
a blind busker, we have a trans busker DJ.
We have buskers that represent all kinds of
music from all over the world, too. We really try to,
you know, have a slice of our community
represented in our artistic and musical performances.
♪♪
I was a professional musician
and I toured in the ‘80s and ’90s.
I kind of retired from that and wanted to
cross off some things on my bucket list,
one of which was to be a busker.
So I decided to busk a summer at Alki Beach,
and on my first day I was out playing
and someone came up and cut
an article out of the newspaper,
said, “Seattle Parks Department is hiring musicians
to perform in the park.”
So I answered the ad and we met this woman,
Adrienne Caver-Hall, who started the busking program.
-A leadership volunteer told me about busking.
I then went and researched it
and found out what it was, and then I realized
that Pike Place Market had a busking program.
And we ended up having a budget
to activate the downtown parks.
So we started with the busker program.
-My name is Philip Craft.
I'm the
busking program
coordinator for the Seattle Parks Department
and the Associated Recreation Council.
And so that was kind of the beginning of a relationship
between me and Adrienne.
She took me under her wing and she
taught me a lot about activating parks
and saw that I really believed in the program.
And that's been,
you know,
kind of my baby,
you know, since I've been doing it for 18 years.
♪ And I don't understand how you can be so mean to someone ♪
♪ So sweet ♪♪
-I have been a busker for like almost seven years
and about a year with the program.
Other cities
kind of criminalize it honestly, like they
like in certain parts,
they won't let you play music.
They kind of consider it panhandling.
So this is a really lax city when it comes to the laws
and the ordinances about playing.
So I love it here.
This is one of the better cities I've ever had.
♪ They fly beneath their eye ♪
♪ Do you know what she might be willing...♪♪
♪♪
♪ I feel so old I'm still trying, trying...♪♪
[ mellow clarinet music ]
♪ In other words... ♪
-We help out the buskers by giving them a safe place
from which to play.
We enable them to be able to play amplified.
Our concierge will make sure that they're safe.
We give them a stipend for their performance.
♪ I weep from the ink in my pen. ♪♪
-I get paid actually an hourly wage.
So we're not just living off the tips.
We're just trying to bring like the music to the parks.
That's what's the important part.
So that's
why it's really beneficial that the program
provides us with stipends
because there's not
a lot of paid artist gigs like that.
♪ Empty all over ♪♪
-One of the things that I really find
joy in is helping struggling musicians,
and there is no better way.
You know then keeping the busking program alive and vibrant
and safe.
-Thanks to Philip for a...
he's always putting the
schedules together and making it possible
for us buskers to just play in the parks
and do what we love to do and get paid for it.
And it's a really sweet gig. So how about a
round of applause for Philip right here?
( crowd claps )
♪♪
[ acoustic guitar music playing ]
-I know I'm making a difference in the parks.
You know, I'm...
I'm making a difference in the personality of the parks.
I know I'm making a difference
in the lives
of the people who enjoy our parks,
and I'm making a difference in the lives of our buskers
who can live their dream and,
you know, many of which can play music year round,
you know, and I'm helping facility that.
♪♪
♪ Perhaps they never will ♪
♪♪
-Watch CityStream
Tuesday nights at 7 on the Seattle Channel
or find us any time online at SeattleChannel.org.
♪♪