Buskers blast ByWard Market for displacing weekend shows
Casino shuttle service forcing buskers out of performance space at William and York
Some Ottawa buskers are furious about being temporarily forced out of a performance spot in the ByWard Market — a space they themselves pushed the city to create.
The William Street Pedestrian Area at William and York streets is well-suited to "circle shows" where the audience surrounds the performers, and it's in high demand by buskers from Ottawa and beyond during the summer.
However, on evenings Thursday through Saturday this week, it's off-limits to buskers so the Casino du Lac-Leamy can operate a shuttle service. The casino is using classic cars to take visitors to a 1950s-themed event.
"Me as a local performer, I would love for people to watch me, and not be taken away by some corporation to a different province just to be doing stuff there," said Egemen Ustun, who does a comedy show with fire and unicycle tricks.
Buskers pushed city to build space
Paul Perreault, who heads an association of circle show performers, said Ottawa Markets — the non-profit that took over management of the ByWard and Parkdale markets in January — should leave the space exclusively to buskers, who depend heavily on summer crowds in the evenings and weekends to earn their living.
"We train eight months of the year to be ready to perform for four months. It's a full-time job," said Perreault, who studied at the National Circus School in Montreal. "My training regime includes 45 hours a week of training. That's nine hours a day to prepare for this."
Additionally, Perreault said, the pedestrian space was created because he and other buskers petitioned the city to create it. A pilot project in 2010 gave way to construction of a permanent space in 2013.
But lately, ByWard Market management has been reserving the space for other activities events including children's dance recitals, Perreault said.
"It's very cute, but there's no ability for professionals to actually work and earn a living."
Other spaces available
Jeff Darwin, executive director of Ottawa Markets, declined to be interviewed, but said in an e-mail that during this week's closure of the spot at William and York, another spot suitable for circle shows remained available.
Perreault said that second spot is inferior because of insufficient foot traffic in the area, and accused Ottawa Markets of ditching the buskers — who pay $200 a year for a licence — in order to collect rent from high-paying users.
Darwin refused to reveal how much Ottawa Markets was collecting from the casino for its use of the space.
"This is a business relationship and we don't disclose or negotiate business terms via the media," Darwin said in an e-mail.
Conflicting stories
An e-mail exchange between Darwin and another busker in late June, provided to CBC by Perreault, gives a little more detail.
"The evening rental of the WSPA space on July 5-7 fits our 'public goals for public spaces' mandate, in that we were able to roughly double the year to date income from your buskers program in just three evenings," Darwin wrote. "This revenue will go a long way towards covering some of our costs for your busker program while we strive to keep your permit fees as nominal as possible."
Meantime, a spokesman for Loto-Québec said the only fee the casino has paid is in parking fees for the shuttle service vehicles.
Whichever version turns out to be true, the dispute has left Ottawa-based performers, and those who enjoy their shows, feeling sour about the city, Perreault said.
"And if we buskers stop wanting to come, there will be no more entertainment accessible for people who may not be able to afford a 100-dollar Cirque du Soleil ticket."