November 5, 2002

For Immediate Release

Contact: Gloria Forouzan
Phone: 412.681.1594
Email: gloria@percolater.com

BUSK PITTSBURGH PRESS CONFERENCE

Pittsburgh, PA - The Busk Pittsburgh Committee will hold a press conference on November 12, at 10:00 a.m. in Mellon Square Park, downtown Pittsburgh. (If the weather is bad, we'll meet on the first floor of the Regional Enterprise Tower, 425 Sixth Avenue).

The Committee is launching Busk Pittsburgh, an educational campaign that will run throughout the winter and which is designed to foster street performing.

Efforts include working with performing artists and venues to facilitate the growth of street performance throughout the city and gaining public acceptance, by informing the community as to how busking enhances the vitality of city streets.

Busk Pittsburgh is working with local City Council officials to write an ordinance to make street performances officially permitted in the city. Busk Pittsburgh believes that street performing creates art entrepreneurs and is a great way for artists to get exposure. Buskers enliven city streets and make abandoned streets safer to walk on, fostering an increase in activity and creativity.

The Busk Pittsburgh Committee encourages street performers, actors, theater groups and musicians to participate. Performing artists interested in busking should email their name, talent, and phone number to: buskpittsburgh@yahoo.com.

Busk Pittsburgh Committee member, Shelly Danko Day said, "Busking has an extensive history dating back centuries. Reaching back in history to revive this lively tradition, affords us the opportunity to enliven Pittsburgh's streets. Busk Pittsburgh is dedicated to educating folks about busking and the importance of putting money in the entertainer's hat or bucket. A tip is like a vote by the audience. They are telling the performer how much they enjoy what they are doing. Even though everyone benefits and no one has to tip, the public has the incentive to pay, because if they don't, then the performers will leave and they will go without entertainment."

Eric Sloss, also a Busk Pittsburgh Committee member, adds that "This is a wonderful opportunity to attract and retain the talent that is brewing in and around the City of Pittsburgh. We have wonderful performers from Carnegie Mellon University's College of Fine Arts, Point Park College, the University of Pittsburgh's School of Music and CAPA, to folk musicians, and theater groups that can take advantage of this opportunity. Busk Pittsburgh invites all performing artists, from students to masters of their art, to use Pittsburgh's streets as their stage."

About Busking:

Busk -(intr. v. busked, busk·ing, busks)
Busking is a centuries-old tradition, consisting of entertainers performing in public places for tips.

[Orig. unknown.] buscare--Lat., to look for--busk'er n. One who busks.

Busking is a centuries-old tradition of entertainers performing for tips in public areas. In medieval Europe, local merchants would invite entertainers to their storefronts, plazas and public squares to attract pedestrians and increase business.

The roots of the American busking tradition lie in the numerous circuses that once migrated from coast to coast. Barnstorming from town to town, circus performers adjusted their comic, sword swallowing, acrobatic and juggling talents for street corners and soon became a mainstay in American street culture.

This unique form of street theater is always spontaneous and improvisational, as Buskers must rely on their skills in a street-level, always changing performance setting. If the crowd has enjoyed the show, always provided for free, they show their appreciation to the performer with a most traditional compensation: a tip when the "hat" is passed around.

Artists have been performing on the streets of many metropolitan areas throughout the world, for hundreds of years. Cities such as New York, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Phoenix, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Barcelona, Paris, and Hong Kong have adopted extensive busking programs.

"Bob Dylan did it like a Rolling Stone."
"Cirque du Soleil jumped through hoops doing it."
"Penn and Teller made magic doing it."

Many now famous artists used busking as a means to promote their work and make money doing it.

For more information about Busk Pittsburgh please e-mail uskpittsburgh@yahoo.com or call 412.661.0676. Busk Pittsburgh is a project of Ground Zero Action network.