A Public Space in Market Harborough for Local Artists to Perform

13th December 2024 | Community

Creative Harborough is the town’s philanthropic network of arts and cultural organisations and businesses. They have worked with Harborough District Council and the ‘Market Harborough and The Bowdens Charity’ to facilitate a busking initiative. This aims to make it easier for local artists and young performers especially, to share their talent and animate the town.

Busking dates back to medieval times and is an important part of many performers’ lives. It can be a lifelong career. But it is also a chance to develop audiences, hone skills and try out new material. This initiative removes barriers such as licensing. It also gives grassroots artists a gentle knee up to experiencing and developing their live performance skills. At the same time, our town and members of the public benefit from live entertainment.

A Word from Creative Harborough

Claire Webb from Creative Harborough says;

“We wanted to make it easy for anyone to have an opportunity to share their talent and creativity. The Market Harborough and The Bowdens Charity, who own the Old Grammar School, have supported the initiative by funding a PRS PPL music license and kindly permitting Creative Harborough to use the venue free of charge which means artists do not have to worry about infringing copyright on any covers they might perform. And the space is not just for musicians, we welcome dance and drama too. All participants have to do is book a slot.

“The idea stems from the success of the live entertainment under the Old Grammar School at Creative Harborough’s launch event earlier this year. The audience loved the joy and colour it brought to the town centre and local businesses appreciated the additional footfall.

“Our organisation’s aim is to help anyone in our town to be able to create or access creativity on a day to day basis. We will run the scheme for a year at least and will be asking for feedback from performers and audience members. And if people want more, we will then seek further funding to ensure the scheme’s continuity.”

The inaugural session was on the evening of Thursday 28 November at the town’s late night shopping event. From then on, there are to be two sessions per week with up to 20 slots available for performances.

Artists can find out more about the scheme, or apply to perform in the space under the Old Grammar School, by visiting Creative Harborough’s website. Here, they will find simple rules of participation and a registration link to agree to a simple code of conduct.

Creative Harborough’s definition of busking is music, dance, street theatre, performance or art offered live in designated spaces within the town for the purposes of entertaining, interacting with members of the public, and receiving voluntary contributions.
Creative Harborough would like to thank the Market Harborough and The Bowdens Charity for their generous donation and support of the project and Market Harborough District Council for their advice and support.