i used to perform at seattle folk life for a decade or so. i also busked or i couldn't have afforded to take a weekend off from gigs or busking at home to play a coule of free sets.

then they started to hassle the buskers for selling tapes (few had cds yet). so i complied and sold my tapes through tower records and they and folklife got their cut. i sold twenty some tapes that year through tower records. however they never paid me. i bugged them and folklife again and again and they couldn't have cared less. they were already trying to over regulate the buskers . i gave up and stopped performing and just went to busk, and sold my tapes and later cds underground. why should i donate my free performances to those bureaucratic headed assholes who won't let ne earn a living. that attitude of hey theres grass growing in that crack, if i can own that crack i can charge rent is so anti art and so fascist they should be ashamed.

yah therte are too many buskers there and they can be too compititive but i usueally shared spots with a couple ofothers and got on fine. the ones i'd kick out are the hare khrishna paraders.

the folk pimps often burry themselves in "the work" and think they are the show after a while, they forget the musicians are the show, and then the quality musicians stop donating and you get the weekend bash they have now.it the same with busker festivals and regular licenced busking spots. it is the nature of busking that you have to move on occasionally. how are they going to miss you if you don't go away.

by the way a lot of full time buskers i know do report income to the tax man to get credit for old age pension.

trying to muzzle what people sing on the street is shamefull and folk life has now out lived its purpose. be honest and become the seattle memorial day gala and forget the folk connection.