(MELBOURNE) Locals were treated to a musical feast when 10 very different performers competed for the title of Melbourne’s best busker.Sounds ranging from a homemade flute to the Tibetan guitar flooded City Square rousing smiles, applause, and dancing from passersby.

The public voted with their wallets donating to the bucket of their favourite busker.

Guitarist and singer Jenny Biddle (shown above) raised the most money and took home the mantle of the city’s best busker and a cheque for $1000.

The event - Street Change - was held as part of the Melbourne Music festival to raise money for homelessness charities - the Lighthouse Foundation and Home Ground Services.

The event was organised by the Rotary Club of Melbourne Park.

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(OTTAWA) — Buskers in the ByWard Market want the City of Ottawa to see them as performers, not panhandlers, and keep its hands out of their pockets — and their hats and guitar cases.“I’m going to move if they don’t change,” said Paul Perreault, a Cirque du Soleil-trained acrobat.

Just in time for the municipal election, buskers are getting organized in response to a city bylaw that went into effect last spring. The bylaw requires street performers in the Market to pay up to $200 for licences, rotate positions frequently and make do without voice amplification.

In response, buskers have formed an association, endorsed a candidate in Rideau-Vanier and voted unanimously in favour of a proposal to amend the bylaw.

Perreault said the current rules are so restrictive, they’re making top-notch international...

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(INTERNET) The leaves are turning a fantastic color of orange in direct sunlight. Along with Fall comes the cold North wind blowing down the alley and snow finding it's way into the tiniest crevice. To top it off, the holidays are coming and we're considering presents to purchase.Busker's Holiday is a new work just published by author Adam Gussow, an associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. It's the kind of book you want to curl up and read on a cold winter's night as you sit and contemplate next year's show. It warms your mind as you learn it's Summer all over again.

Gussow (or as the locals call him, Mister Satan) establishes Busker's Holiday as a story of one McKay Chernoff, a Columbia University grad student with a harmonica in his pocket and a blues band in...

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I've been busking without a tip jar or sign. I don't ask for money i just play. When someone offers money i stop playing, put the money in my pocket. The police tell me im soliciting. I say no im not. They say yes you are. I say no im not....ect . can anyone give me some talking points? One cop said by accepting money im giving the impression that im soliciting and i would have to prove that i didn't in court.

Violinist Joshua Bell was left shocked and disappointed when he realised parents don't like their children paying attention to street musicians during a recent busking experiment.The acclaimed classical musician dressed down and wore a disguise for his odd free show at the Washington D.C. Metro (subway) station - and was surprised no one recognised him.

Reporting back to editors of the Washington Post newspaper, who came up with the ruse, Bell confessed he was appalled to discover so many adults don't like their children to stop for buskers.

He tells WENN, "I had a baseball hat on and tattered clothes, so, if there was anyone who had been to my concerts, they would not have known it was me.

"It was sad and interesting because children tended to want to stop and listen and parents...

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