The Busking Mafia

Yes they do exist in various cities, mostly in Europe as I’ve begun to discover.

The busking mafia is basically a group of buskers who take over all the best busking spots and don‘t let anyone else play. Gasp, horror, the evils of society finally come to light!

Apparently since Romania became part of the EU, tons of Romanians have made there way to the richer European countries where they form organised busking and begging communities.

My friend Michael, a local Hamburger, had suspected something was up about these buskers for a while. In the 5 days I spent in Hamburg, I saw about 20 different people playing the accordion.

If you want to busk somewhere and there’s already a busker there, you should ask the current busker how long they will be and suggest swapping on an hourly basis. That’s pretty common busker etiquette.

Most cities have busking laws stating that a busker can’t occupy a pitch for more than an hour or two,

This is where the mafia come in.

The accordion players in Hamburg didn’t stay in the same place all day, rather swapped every few hours, so you could never get a good spot.

Bergen, Norway did not have such a strong busking presence, but was rife with beggars. Rumour has it, beggars and accordion players are in cahoots, controlling the scene on the street and making a fortune.

I played in a spot in Bergen where I’d seen an accordion player the day before. I had a good set. Then the accordion player came up to me.

“I play here” he said “you go, I play here”.

My non confrontational nature really came to light. I said OK and walked away.
For more on the beggar/busking mafia in Bergen, read this article.

Gothenburg in Sweden had a similar system but with a begging mafia rather than a busking mafia. Apparently up to 60 beggars were driven to town in a bus and picked up at the end of the day. Where they live, nobody knows

Fortunately they gave me no trouble. We nodded at each other and I made sure I played a long way away. I’d rather not find a horse’s head in my bed thank you very much.