Wanted in downtown Dover: Buskers to build buzz

Dover is looking for buskers to work downtown this summer. 

Unfamiliar with the term? 

Don't worry. Even Diane Laird, executive director of the Downtown Dover Partnership, didn't know what buskers were until just recently. 

The word, which is more commonly used in Britain, refers to someone who performs music or other entertainment on the street or in public for donations or tips. 

Several famous musicians started out as buskers, including Ed Sheeran, who was homeless for two and a half years and used to perform outside shops in Galway, Ireland. 

Starting this Friday, downtown Dover will allow community members to join the busking ranks, Laird said. 

The new program, which is being piloted between the library and South Bradford Street from 11:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m., is the brainchild of City Council President Tim Slavin. 

Mike Miller and Rick Hudson, both from Dover's Friends of Folk group, will be the first two performers, with Dover High School and the Inner City Cultural League soon to follow.

"Busking is a way to bring more arts into the city," Slavin said in announcing the program. "And while this activity typically focuses on musicians, we are encouraging street performances by poets and plein air artists, as well." 

Street performers themselves can be controversial. 

Take Ocean City, Maryland, where the council recently tried to limit street performers to ends of streets, as well as ban all sales of artistic works, after business owners complained they were scaring away customers and being too noisy.

Buskers there would have had to apply for permits and pay a fee to perform on the boardwalk, but after a lawsuit, many of the restrictions were removed. In the suit, a group of performers argued that "the First Amendment does not allow a town or municipality to put a performer in a little box." 

Ocean City Boardwalk performer restrictions deemed unconstitutional

In other cities, buskers have been accused of blocking access to shops and aggressively demanding money. 

Laird is confident Dover won't run into any problems, however. 

For one, several businesses and property owners have already said they're OK with the idea. The Downtown Dover Partnership is hanging signs at a number of pre-selected spaces for buskers to perform at. 

Those spots are wide enough to allow for pedestrian flow and many of them have overhangs or canopies for the performers to take shelter under in poor weather conditions. 

"My hope is that there will be some self-policing among the buskers, and that certainly there won’t be any aggressive or inappropriate behavior," Laird said. "That’s the hope.

"Sometimes when you give trust, you get trust. I don’t have my head in the sand, but sometimes we overthink things.”

In the beginning, the spots will be open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., for the lunch crowd. Over time, Laird expects that the hours will be expanded to include late afternoons, weekends and during downtown events. 

The hope is that more buskers will choose to perform in Dover, creating a welcoming, lighthearted outdoor setting for visitors, shoppers and anyone walking and driving through downtown. Organizers expect that most performers will not use speakers or amplifiers. 

Laird compared the sound of music to the smell of fresh cookies or bread wafting from a bakery. It's enticing and draws you in. 

"It’s like an innate response that you have," she said. 

Dover's already hosted a few street performers during First Fridays, Laird added. The events, held on the first Friday of each month, feature merchants, open houses, specials and more. 

"Plein air artist Dennis Young provided an outdoor pastel demonstration to engage passersby, and music flowed on the streets from saxophonist Wesley Melvin at House of Coffi and instrumental jazz and blues from open doors at the Dover Art League," Laird said, painting a picture of a playful and lively downtown where people want to hang out and get to know each other. 

"We’re going to launch it," she said, "and then it’s going to be a gentle, organic process, we hope.”

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.