If you live in New York you’ll know that we’ve had an astonishing number of days in a row with precipitation. It’s getting like Seattle East over here. For the street musician these are hard times. On Monday we went out to the park even though the weather was truly on the edge. Luckily we were the only band out there that day and did very well. Yesterday, however, there was only a 30% of rain and it seemed like everyone was out and about. And looking desperate!
It seems the Central Park Conservancy has noticed how many more bands there are this year and is attempting to corral us all unto the poet’s walk, fountain, and band shell areas. We’ve been asked twice to leave our Columbus Statue spot and move closer to the Bandshell. Yesterday, I decided to set up on the promenade but there was a chamber orchestra in the band shell. No problem, I moved down to the fountain and set up where the blue vipers were playing a few years back. Over the course of three hours, five different bands asked us to move from our spot even though we were clearly set up and established before anyone else got there. I tried to be as courteous as possible and even moved the band to point in a different direction for a while so as to accommodate more different musicians. Ultimately, there were too many of us to not get in each other’s way.
Cooler heads and compromises did prevail. I also think these things go in waves. Perhaps the economy is so poor that regular gigs are drying up and more are taking to the streets. Eventually, only the most persistent and those that can generate the most income will be left and things will settle down a little bit.