The Street Performer Calendar Year
author: kirsten anderberg
 e-mail: kirstena@resist.ca
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Buskers (or street performers) and crafters, live a very cyclical life together. We have our own calendar year based upon the migration of others. We are at the Pdx Sat Market, the Oregon Country Fair, the Eugene Sat Market and Seattle street fairs. Buskers/crafters are like bears going down to the river to catch Salmon when they know they are running plentifully...or, in other words, start your busking career in May, not Jan., or you may become quite hungry!
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The Street Performer Calendar Year
By Kirsten Anderberg (www.kirstenanderberg.com)
(July 23, 2006 * All Rights Reserved)
My life works in cycles according to the Street Performer, or busker, Calendar. In busking, like many other industries, our profits revolve around public spending trends, whether that be a cruise ship anchored off our waterfront or a holiday season such as Christmas. (The Pike Place Market actually sends out a monthly listing of the cruise ship dates and conventions in town to its buskers and merchants for that reason.) I have often said busking is a lifestyle and I think part of why I say that is busking works in a yearly cycle. If you only come for part of the cycle, things are missing. Like ants stocking up for the winter, buskers also work all summer and Christmas season to be able to survive Jan. through April.
I would say May is the 1st month of the Busker Year. That is when the first big fairs begin. That is when tourists begin to arrive where I busk, on the West Coast of the U.S. For many of us, our lives, collectively, have revolved around a certain fair schedule. For decades, a group of buskers and craft makers and vendors toured the West Coast, at the same fairs, together. For decades, I would, for example, begin the year hustling Seattle's University Street Fair, then the next weekend is always Folklife at Seattle Center. The 3rd weekend in June is always Seattle's Fremont Street Fair and the 2nd weekend in July is always the Oregon Country Fair. Labor Day weekend is always Bumbershoot at Seattle Center, and that fair has been seen as the closing of the summer fair season for decades, while some of the rest of the "family" head south to gem fairs in Arizona, to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, etc. to winter.
For many crafters, they spent every cent they have on supplies and fees to sell at the fairs. In May, they are dying to get out and sell to feed their families. Buskers also often invest in large supplies of DVDs and CDs in the beginning of the season and want to get out and liquidate that stock as well. So although there is an excitement to the first fairs in May, there is also a hunger, from coming off of the long winter months and having all investments tied up in fair stock. By June though, everyone seems to be rolling along fine. Often on weekends in the summer when we are not at street fairs, we show up at places like the Eugene Saturday Market, the Portland Saturday Market, or the Pike Place Market to keep us busy every weekend through the summer, basically. The crafters are alongside us at these venues too.
By the end of Sept., buskers and crafters have made money for a few months and are exhausted! I see many buskers and crafters treating the period between mid-Sept. and Mid-Nov., as a down time, a time to not be in public, but at home with family. It is also a busy time preparing for the next season, the Christmas season. It is as if we sell from May-Sept., then don't sell as much but create again from Sept.-Nov., then we spend, collectively, two months again in high sales mode. But then, the dreaded winter begins!
Making it from Jan.-April is every busker and crafters' challenge. Those are the months we end up entertaining and supporting each other, as much as the public. In winter at the Pike Place Market, there are some days when it seems I am singing almost solely to other performers and crafters/vendors at the Market. That is a totally different crowd than the summer crowd. So my audience changes with the seasons as well. From May-Sept., my audience is a full mix of locals and tourists. But the Christmas rush from Nov.-Dec., is mostly locals. And as I said, Jan-April is very much about entertaining the locals, even though a steady stream of tourists at certain venues, such as the markets I've listed, help subsidize the lean winter months for us.
I am writing this article in July, while we are in full busking mode. I am driving my body to work as hard as it can, to work as much as it can now, before Fall hits. But I see I am functioning with this mentality of working towards the Fall break! In Fall, things mellow out, and you can do things you put off all summer while you were in full busking mode! Fall gives West Coast buskers a moment to catch our breath between seasons. And in that way, buskers, and crafters, live a very cyclical life together. We have out own calendar year based upon our adaptation to the migration of others through our lives. We are like bears that go down to the river to catch Salmon when they know Salmon are running through plentifully, to store fat for the winter. You go to the river to eat at the wrong time of year, and you'll starve. Busker survival involves cyclic forethought, as much as anything else. Or suffice it to say, I suggest you start your busking career in May, not Jan., or you may become quite disappointed and hungry.
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homepage: http://www.kirstenanderberg.com
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