For Calgary buskers, the magic is fading with prime venue closure but the show must go on
CBC
Dan Duguay, the One Man Band, performed his final show at the soon-to-close Eau Claire Market on Saturday, wowing a crowd of people, some who first saw him perform there decades ago.
The market will be shuttered and demolished this summer.
For performers, it was a farewell to one of Calgary's most lucrative busking locations.
"That was the great thing about Eau Claire," said Duguay. "It was indoors and it allowed me to busk whether it was raining or snowing or whatever. There were a lot of buskers. You'd get down here and you'd have to wait for the spots.
"It was a very vibrant time."
Duguay says Eau Claire Market initially drew him to the city. He performed there from 1995 to 2001.
"I moved here because it was an indoor place that I could play, and in Canada you need to find indoor places to be a busker."
"I don't busk very much anymore as I feel like it's a bit of a dying art form," Duguay said. "We're becoming a cashless society."
Duguay said busking is also competing with social media performers, a desensitized society and a lack of viable spaces to perform. He now earns an income through corporate gigs, festivals and events.
"There's a certain amount of people who are desensitized to stuff. You know, back in the '90s, if you saw a guy playing a whole bunch of instruments at once, it was like, 'wow, I've never seen this before.' Now chances are you've seen it on YouTube," Duguay said.
The Downtown Calgary Association oversees busking on Stephen Avenue Walk and acknowledges the scene is struggling. The association is working to revive the mall to bring vibrancy to downtown.
"We see busking as a lost art and really we want to encourage busking. But we want to have it more prescriptive and more managed and a better quality, for sure," said Mark Garner, executive director of the association.
This year, the association is introducing new rules around how close performers can be, where they can set up, and how loud they can play on Stephen Avenue. Garner says there have been issues with performers drowning out music on restaurant patios and other performers.
"We want to strongly enforce the amplification to make sure that it's not a high decibel level, that it's not hurting your ears as you're walking by one of the live performers," Garner said.
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