Guitarists strumming a tune to a gathered crowd, a musician leaning against a wall making a harmonica sing, or a passerby joining a pianist in a public place – these images come to mind when we think of busking, pieced together from Hollywood movies and music videos. But in Bengaluru, busking is an unfamiliar concept to most. “Bengaluru’s streets are busy; that’s part of the problem. Even someone like Ed Sheeran found out that turning up to busk without permission on a street like Church Street just doesn’t work here, however good the intentions. That’s the gap we’re trying to close,” says Malini Goyal, CEO, UnboxingBLR Foundation, which has set out to make busking a regular Saturday fixture on Church Street with ‘The Music Scene’. She adds, “Busking isn’t illegal or unwelcome; it just didn’t have a structured, permitted, city recognised format. Unlike New York or London, where busking is an integral part of the cultural fabric, it is relatively new to India.”
With the Music Scene, the idea is to provide a fixed space for a lineup of independent musicians to perform and earn. “Instead of it being a one-time event, the thrust is to make it a recurring fixture, with a proper venue, a set schedule, and the right approvals so that an audience can gather and a musician can perform without either of them wondering if it will get shut down halfway through a song. If we get this right, Church Street becomes the place busking found its stage in B’luru,” says Goyal.
Interested musicians have been signing up through an online form on the organisation’s social media page, the main criteria being that the artiste writes their own music. The curating process tries to be the opposite of what one would look for at talent shows, Goyal notes, saying, “The selection is anonymous in a way, we are not looking at who has the biggest following or the flashiest reel. What we are evaluating is the music itself: the quality and originality of the composition, how well the artiste commands a live set. What matters to us– how well a performance is likely to connect with people walking past on a Saturday evening. We wanted a process that gives a genuinely talented, unknown artiste the same shot as someone with an existing audience.”
So far, there have been two editions of the event seeing anywhere between 250-300 people in a floating crowd. “What struck me was how surprised people were to discover how good these artistes actually are. A few in the crowd started dancing, several pulled out their phones to film, and by the end of the sets, we saw people going up and taking selfies with the performers,” shares Goyal. In true Bengaluru fashion, language was no barrier, with Goyal adding, “We had sets in Kannada, Tulu, Hindi and English, and the crowd embraced every one of them. The city that doesn’t need everything in one language to feel like it belongs to it.”
(The Music Scene is set to take place on Saturday at 1 Sobha, Church Street at 5pm)