Street entertainer on Calle Gerona

Benidorm joins two other European cities, London and Cork to bring in tighter regulations for street entertainers. Benidorm have been holding auditions for hopefuls wanting to apply for a licence and the authorities are taking it all very seriously, with a panel of judges! In the first round, yes it´s a bit like the X-Factor auditions, the panel consisted of Manuel Troncoso - a music teacher and Jose Fuster - a dance teacher, both from the Municipal Conservatoire together with the school´s director Mariano Berreno. For the second round an official from the council´s Culture department was present as well as a representative from the Benidorm Residents Committee!

This quartet will also need a licence in future

Benidorm Council have designated ten spots throughout the town for the entertainers to perform - giving them either a morning or afternoon "shift". But this all comes at a price - anyone wanting to apply had to firstly register as self employed at the Social Security office, with monthly contributions of 270 euros and it doesn´t stop there - they also have to pay the council a weekly fee of 75 euros! So according to my calculations, they have to earn 142.50 euro per week just to cover their overheads which equates to 570 euros per month. At this rate the entertainers will be requesting notes only or have a credit card machine to swipe your card. Surely it can´t be worth their while if they plan on being "legal" .... and who will be policing these acts? Surely police time is better spent chasing the real criminals or scammers such as the pea men and pickpockets - unfortunately still abundant on the streets, especially on a Wednesday and Sunday when it´s market day.

Very seasonal!

I wonder whether the sand sculptors will also need to apply for this licence.... they can be seen along the length of the Levante beach and are incredible.
The sculptors keep guard 24 hrs a day to stop and vandals coming along and knocking down their creations, which take days to produce. They have collection buckets at the bottom of the statues where passer byes can throw some coins.

In Cork they are trying to bring in a dress code for all the buskers and street entertainers and a rule that they must have a repertoire of 20 songs to avoid repetition! These officials obviously have too much time on their hands if that is all they can think of - something I am sure the constituents wouldn´t be too amused about!