With Corona keeping me from seeing any live bands while in Bosnia, the only live music has been the buskers.
I used to busk, and still do when I travel in America. It's a great way to keep your skills sharp and to make some money at the same time.
Actually, in Minneapolis, I made more money busking than I ever did playing in bars with my band.
That is mostly because the bars in Minneapolis don't pay bands for shit. Truly, bands were making making more money in the 1960's playing the bars than they do in the 2020's.
I guess that's another topic...
Back to busking.
Sarajevo and Banja Luka both had buskers. In Banja Luka, it was fully legal because of the new mayor of the town.
In Sarajevo, I haven't been able to figure out if it is actually legal.
People do it every day, and I've seen them stop playing and leave when police show up.
One of the times I was listening to this girl, a police officer told her to stop, and if she found her singing again she would call child protection services.
When I returned the next day, she was singing at the same time that she always sings, just a little further down the street.
The buskers' relationship with the police is very strange in Sarajevo, and I'm pretty sure it is different with every officer and every busker.
This is a busking duo from Argentina. Every once in a while I would see a traveling busker, but mostly it's the same few people in the part of town I was in.
This guy plays accordion on most days, but it's funny, because he mostly sits there not playing his accordion. Maybe after you play as many songs as he has, you just stop caring:)
This guy had a speaker with him, and he did some singing behind a guitar that was plugged in.
He was sitting in front of McDonald's and from what I saw, he made the most money of all the buskers. He was raking it in!
I became friends with this busker who is lucky enough to be in Banja Luka. Not only is busking legal there, but Banja Luka is some sort of heaven city.
When I came here, I made the decision to leave my guitar in America. I thought it would be too big to carry from town to town(which was true) and I kind of wanted to show up as a blank slate.
If I move to Banja Luka, I will definitely do some busking and maybe even form a band:)
Until concerts can happen again, buskers are the only ones keeping the music alive!