Fancy busking in Harborough town centre? Musicians encouraged to share their talent and 'animate the town'
More buskers are being encouraged to play in Harborough town centre as part of a new initiative.
Free slots will be made available outside the town's iconic Old Grammar School, with licensing barriers being lifted so local musicians can develop their live performance skills.
The idea is the brainchild of Creative Harborough, the town’s network of arts and cultural organisations and businesses, who has worked with Harborough District Council and Market Harborough and The Bowdens Charity to facilitate a busking initiative that aims to make it easier for local artists, and young performers especially, to share their talent and 'animate the town'.
Claire Webb from Creative Harborough said: “We wanted to make it easy for anyone to have an opportunity to share their talent and creativity. Market Harborough and Bowdens Charity, who own the Old Grammar School, have supported the initiative by funding a PRS PPL music license and kindly permitting Creative Harborough to use the venue free of charge which means artists do not have to worry about infringing copyright on any covers they might perform. And the space is not just for musicians, we welcome dance and drama too. All participants have to do is book a slot.”
The inaugural session will be on the evening of Thursday November 28 coinciding with the town's late night shopping event, when talent from local bands signed with Harborough’s very own record label, Somewhere Records, will play. From then on, there are two sessions per week with up to 20 slots available for performances.
Claire added: “The idea stems from the success of the live entertainment under the Old Grammar School at Creative Harborough's launch event earlier this year.
The audience loved the joy and colour it brought to the town centre and local businesses appreciated the additional footfall.
“Our organisation's aim is to help anyone in our town to be able to create or access creativity on a day to day basis. We will run the scheme for a year at least and will be asking for feedback from performers and audience members. And if people want more, we will then seek further funding to ensure the scheme's continuity.”
Artists can find out more about the scheme or apply to perform in the space under the Old Grammar School by visiting Creative Harborough’s website www.creativeharborough.org, where they will find simple rules of participation and a registration link to agree to a simple code of conduct.