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Monday, June 15, 2009

News Are You Ready for the Big Busk?

Posted by Ezra Ace Caraeff on Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 8:00 AM

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This just in from the End Hits email receptacle:

The Big Busk is a new music festival for downtown Portland.
These are the ingredients:
* a deep and diverse pool of creative and talented musicians
* a beautiful, human-friendly downtown that consistently ranks among the most walkable in the nation
* a really crappy economy
The idea is, for an entire afternoon, to saturate downtown with music. All kinds of music. Up and down Broadway, the transit mall, the park blocks to the esplanade.
There is no stage, but every corner is a stage. There is no audience, but everyone is the audience. There is no admission fee, but we trust attendees tip generously.
So it's kind of an experiment. It's also kind of an art project and a tongue-in-cheek celebration of creative defiance. Good music for tough times.

This could either be really great, or pretty frightening. Probably a little of both. The Big Busk is scheduled to take over downtown Portland on Saturday, July 18th, and if you want to take part, send them an email.

Have fun, just leave the puppies at home, okay:?

 

Comments (1) RSS

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I remember seeing the craigslist ad about this. It sounded a lot better than being asked to play at a bar for free - again. I want to like this idea. However,

- It's hard enough to make any money busking; now there's concentrated competition?

- Portlanders in general are hardly experts at paying musicians properly

- Portlanders aren't generally given the perception that music is something worth paying fairly for. Now we have a free music festival?

Again, a beautiful idea, if the concept of music-as-a-profession is totally alien to you, and if you think musicians who try to make a living with it are crazy.

The one good thing about this was that it was this wasn't put on by a bar, restaurant, or club owner. Those businesspeople regularly capitalize on the vanity of the dearth of musicians (with day jobs) willing to play for 'exposure.'

Posted by Pedaltone on July 18, 2009 at 7:24 PM · Report

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