Busking has long been a popular activity on the streets of Norwich, with a rich history of talented performers adding to the city’s vibrant atmosphere through music, dance, and street theatre.
Supporting our busking community, alongside protecting residents and businesses is important. We conducted a public consultation on proposed new guidelines for busking to gather input from all parties; residents, businesses, and the busking community. We also spoke to the Music Union and Keep Streets Live to ensure this popular street entertainment complements our vibrant high street.
As a result, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new busking guidelines, which provides guidance on locations, noise, timings, obstructions, complaints, and safety. Additionally, we have also introduced a busking code to help performers make the most of their time on our streets. Please visit: www.norwich.gov.uk/busking
Drafting the guidelines has taken a partnership approach which involved the council, its partners, the public, and the busking community.
Here are some key insights and feedback from our survey:
475 people responded to our public consultation
- 317 of those were local residents
- 43 were business
- 11 were business owners and 87 were people who worked in the city
- 26 were buskers
Overall residents and visitors see our buskers as a positive addition, contributing to the vibrancy, atmosphere, and unique character of our city streets. Our busking community also reported a positive experience, appreciating the ease of performing, flexibility and social aspects of busking in Norwich and the support they generally receive from the public. Some use the opportunity to showcase their talents, practice for paid gigs or simply as a hobby.
To have a look at the full summary report along with our new busking guidelines, please visit Get Talking Norwich.
Cllr Matthew Packer, portfolio holder and member for planning and regulatory services said, “I am delighted to share our new guidelines from what was a detailed and in-depth public consultation. Norwich’s street performers are part of our culture and have a long history of entertaining on our streets. We listened to our residents, businesses and visitors and the guidelines, as well as the map which identifies the key sites for buskers, are the result of great partnership working.”
“We are very keen to hear what people think of our new guidelines and we encourage people to visit the consultation which remains open on our ‘Get talking Norwich’ page so that we can fine tune and adapt as these take effect. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the consultation.”
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