In time for Buskerfest, Toronto wants to create more opportunities for street performers and food vendors

Kyle Sipkens busks in downtown Toronto (Handout)

This weekend, the city will welcome jugglers, Tarot readers, dancing animals and more unique performers and food vendors from around the world for the Toronto International Buskerfest.

And while the popular annual event has been going on since 2000, the city is now looking for ways to make its streets and sidewalks even more welcoming for performers and food carts throughout the year.

The city is hosting in-person and virtual consultations in September, as well as conducting an online survey, as they set to review the bylaws that help maintain street vending and performance.

Permits, licence required

Those who sell their wares on the street, whether it’s food, crafts or their talents, must obtain a licence from the city to do so. A permit is also needed for those who operate their business on streets or sidewalks. The permits can be applied for online or in person.

Those wanting to perform at specific tourist destinations like Sankofa Square, Harbourfront Centre or the Distillery District can do so by applying for a special licence and paying a permit fee.

The city licences and permits are regulated through various bylaws — the Street Vending Bylaw, the Licensing Bylaw and the Street and Sidewalks Bylaw.

The city says they want to make the current rules easier to follow and open up the city to more performers and food vendors.

“The purpose of the review is to create more opportunities for everyone, support a vibrant food and entertainment culture in the city and make the rules clearer and easier to follow,” a City of Toronto spokesperson said in an email.

Consultation process welcomed by busker

It’s a welcome move for Kyle Sipkens, a prolific street performer and curator whose talents include stilt walking, sword juggling, fire breathing and standing on a stack of nails.

He says there are a number of ways the city can improve conditions for busking, especially as public performing spaces disappear because of development.

“What used to be a public space has become the lobby to a building now because of how it’s been reconstructed,” he tells CTV Toronto. “Or public spaces have become what’s called privately owned, publicly accessible spaces. So we can’t really perform in some of those anymore.”

Sipkens, who’s had some meetings with the city as part of their consultation process, says some of the key things he’d like to see implemented include protections for public space, as well as how bylaw officers interact with buskers to make busking more friendly and accessible.

“Right now you get your busker licence and a list of rules of where you’re not allowed to perform,” he says. “We’ve approached the city and suggested that perhaps there’s ways that they can offer buskers suggestions on how they can perform successfully in the city.”

Some other cities don’t require busker licences

While he hasn’t had any interactions with bylaw officers, Sipkens knows of licensed buskers who have received a ticket in the mail, with no indication of what they did wrong.

“In some ways, a permit has made them a more vulnerable target than someone who doesn’t have a permit,” he says.

So far, the city has been very receptive to the feedback shared by Sipkens, who’s taken his show across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

He says some other international cities are more transparent about where buskers can or can’t perform. Many places in the U.S. don’t require a licence or permit to perform since it’s considered freedom of speech.

“There’s good things and bad things about whether or not having a permit in place helps,” he says. “In the U.S., it’s more so a personal freedom that someone can go out and busk in a public space.”

While Toronto doesn’t compare to Pier 39 in San Francisco, a historically-established space for buskers, which boasts its own special stage for street artists, Sipkens is encouraged by the city’s openness to feedback.

“Our interactions with the city have actually been very pro-busking and very welcoming of buskers, and helping look for opportunities to support us and to help us in what we do,” he says.