Things I've learned about festival busking
1) It's fun. That's good news.
2) It's rough on the fingers and feet. That's not a surprise.
3) Nobody says anything if you run out of tunes to play and start repeating yourself. That's a relief.
4) Find the sweet spot! It turns out that being near lines of little girls is lucrative. That's alliterative.
At Spoutwood I found a spot that got a constant cool breeze, which was important because it was pretty sweltering. By happy chance it was also right next to the pony rides. As a result, I had a pretty constant audience of young children. Dancing kids = tipping parents! I also figured out halfway through that if somebody takes my picture, I could smile and nudge my tip basket, and they'd be very likely to drop some money in. The end result? While other strolling musicians complained about not getting much in tips, I kept very quiet.
The pony rides at Maryland Fairy Festival never had the lines that Spoutwood did, but I had the advantage of positioning myself between the food vendors (who were often handing people $1 bills) and the nearest shady area. Absolutely adorable? The little girl who sat down in front of me through three sets and just stared, smiling. Also adorable? The little girl who yelled "bravo!"; whenever I finished playing.
I'll close this with a couple of my favorite photos.
From Spoutwood:
And from Maryland:
2) It's rough on the fingers and feet. That's not a surprise.
3) Nobody says anything if you run out of tunes to play and start repeating yourself. That's a relief.
4) Find the sweet spot! It turns out that being near lines of little girls is lucrative. That's alliterative.
At Spoutwood I found a spot that got a constant cool breeze, which was important because it was pretty sweltering. By happy chance it was also right next to the pony rides. As a result, I had a pretty constant audience of young children. Dancing kids = tipping parents! I also figured out halfway through that if somebody takes my picture, I could smile and nudge my tip basket, and they'd be very likely to drop some money in. The end result? While other strolling musicians complained about not getting much in tips, I kept very quiet.
The pony rides at Maryland Fairy Festival never had the lines that Spoutwood did, but I had the advantage of positioning myself between the food vendors (who were often handing people $1 bills) and the nearest shady area. Absolutely adorable? The little girl who sat down in front of me through three sets and just stared, smiling. Also adorable? The little girl who yelled "bravo!"; whenever I finished playing.
I'll close this with a couple of my favorite photos.
From Spoutwood:
And from Maryland: