readyforbusking

Graz

From the last trip we really fell in love with this city though our busking experiance wasn't very good. This time we had more luck with busking and we had time to relax on rainy days.

Graz

Change in the law:
Till now the city didn't have any restriction on playing on the streets. Because of that the last years the number of buskers grew really fast and the shops and the people living in the center started complaning more and more so the city had to make some change in the rules.

The rules in German

• Musicians can play alone or in groups up to 5 members in the band
• You can play between 11.00-14.00pm and between15.00-21.00pm
• you have to be 5 m away from shop and house entraces and also you have to be 50 m away from other street musicians, churches and from schools
• in one place you can play for 30 minutes and than you have to move at least 100 meter from the first spot. The spot cannot be used by other buskers for 30 minutes.
• you're not allowed to use amplifier or drums
• You cannot ask directly money from the people
• You can get a Platzkarte by showing your id or passport in the City hall, and every member of the group has to have this card. You can get 3 of these cards per week (it means you can play 3 days in a week)

All in all it's not that bad. The police gave us a paper with the informations while we were playing.
On the paper you can find the rules and a small map of the city.
If you play in the read part of the map you have to go to the City hall and get a permit. It doesn't say anything about paying for it.
On the other hand outside of the red area you can play without a special paper by the same rules.

• More information here:

Rathaus, Landhausgasse 2
8010 Graz
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 7.00-14.00
www.graz.at/verordnungen

Our experiance:
We were really looking forward to visiting this city again. We made some good friends here and it was nice to meet them again after a year. :)

Markus joined us a little bit :P

Say hi to the camera :)

Even the busking was a bit better than last year or at least it wasn't worse. We played in the same spots (most of them are outside of the red area). We couldn't play for some days because of the heavy rain and storms, so we could take our first brake. 
The last day was wonderful again! Everything happened so spontaneously and it was so natural. We played in front of the University for free food and a bit of money than we went gerilla gardening had nice talks with people, and at night we went to an open air concert where we had some beers and a lot of fun! :)
It feels so good to be on the road again and just let things happen around you.