readyforbusking

Busking in Cologne

The last stop in Germany and for a long time the first bigger city we visited. We had really bad luck in the first day, but than everything turned out better than expected.:)

Köln

Laws:
You can start playing every sharp hour till half as in many German cities like Dresden, Münster. Most of the people keep this rule but  If you're there for the first time the police will politely let you know what the rules are and that's it.

Best spot in Cologne

The old town was deserted

Our experiance:
1st day:
It was horrible. I think we walked at least 3 hours in the sun till we found a nice looking spot but nobody really payed more than some cents. The shopping streets were over crowded, and for the big squares we are too quiet. We even tried an underground passage where the acoustic was brilliant, but again maybe 2 people payed and the rest just looked at us like we are alians.:P We just found one place in the end where it was quite good to play. So in almost 4 hours we made just 15-17euros and we were really disappointed.
2nd day:
Much better! in an hour and a half 25 euros. We went back in the same place where we played last in the previous day (between the Dome and the Roman museum) and we played there an hour. We didn't care about the rules because we were desperate after the horrible first day and what we went through. It was a relief because we thought that we'll get stuck there for a bit longer.

Map of busking places in Cologne

Best places:

• Hohe strasse (for bigger bands cause it's really loud)
• Am Leystapel
• Heinrich-Böll-Platz (The only good spots for us were the red dots on the map)

So if you have an unusual act and you are quite loud it's a good place for you. We still prefer to paly in smaller cities after all but for a couple of days I think you would enjoy Cologne.