Palma Curbs Street Entertainers

cannot use amplifiers or noisy instruments

Love them or hate them, Palma is full of street entertainers in squares like the Plaza Mayor, Plaza Reina, Paseo de Borne and pretty well everywhere there's plenty of footfall in the city. They serenade you at your chosen cafe with their accordions, saxophones, and guitars, stand perfectly still, sit in baths, appear behind photo frames or seem to be invisible all for your entertainment and of course a few centimos.

Palma council is about to introduce a raft of new rules concerning occupation of the public highway which will limit just what these street entertainers, who now have to have a license, can do and where.

Musicians are subject to 16 new rules and will no longer be able to play for more than 30 minutes in the same place, repeat the same song within that time, will not be allowed to perform in a place which is within earshot of the previous one and cannot use amplifiers or noisy instruments like drums and trumpets!

The others – mime artists, clowns, statues and the like – are affected by 21 new rules which restrict their ability to perform in areas where their presence might interfere with the visibility or perspective of places of historic or cultural interest.

Personally I think it's a good move as I can't think of anything more annoying when having a coffee on the terrace to have La Vie en Rose played umpteen times on a tuneless accordion from a distance of 2 metres. And you?

Published 13 January 2012 Stephen White.