Taste of Chicago 2001

[Irina]

Latest info: they changed the busking rules. Now we have to sign for 2 hour time spots, there are 8 sound and 8 non-sound spots, and it's never enough for everybody. Security watches us like hawks, and gives citations and tickets for: working without city permit, working in a wrong spot or in a wrong time, staying later then 7 pm, suggesting donations etc...Three thumbs down for this one.

[kram]

2002 was all that Irina described 2001 to be, and so much more...

Security was relentless and inconsistent, they'd often barge into our circle shows in the middle or right before we'd pass the hat. Often their reasons were to see our permits and tags. These were pinned to our shorts, fully within the expectations and instructions we'd been given and fully visible. There was no reason for them to stop our shows.

It's apparent that the Taste of Chicago organizers may be trying to exterminate buskers from the annual festival or at the very least do not want to encourage busking any more than they have to.

One rumor I heard from some of the other buskers, is that the regulations were implemented about three years ago largely due to real estate squabbling amongst the buskers themselves. Before this I'm told that it was technically illegal to perform at the Taste but it was done, and mostly overlooked by both Chicago City Cops and the festival Security.

Downtown Chicago was a lot more fun, although surprisingly less lucrative than Omaha where we usually do our circle shows.

[circusboy90210]

This year has been marked by the sad happening of the bucket boys actually killing someone and making michigan ave .. out of the question for performance......and therefore making competition for spots in the taste itself even more hectic .. placing us at eachothers throats for spots and a space in line for the spots.... not to mention a new unforgeable id. .... to bad the russians got run off last year. more free stuff on the pitch did not exactly make it easy to make ca$h but it was ok anyway's

[Stephon]

Excuse my ignorance, but who are the bucket boys, and what happened with them killing someone?

[circusboy90210]

I suppose that you are not familiar with the taste .. or have not been to chi-town very often. The bucket boys are those nuisance kids with no permits who are basically 2 bit hustlers , they run up and down the sidewalks harassing people to help them buy uniforms for their basketball team.. (no team) , they're all from the worst projects.. oh and they play drums on buckets.Everyone there kno ws about them. well it seems on the first saturday of the taste they got into a little internal bickering and shot a innocent bystander and so that means no more performing on michigan ave. because they were "street performers". again another story of one small percentage fucking it up for the rest of us.

[Stephon]

Thanks for the info.

We have those guys in the D.C. area, but I haven't heard of them being so aggressive.