Street buskers/musicians have been apart of humanity for a very long time.

Wikepedia states:
[Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles. People engaging in this practice are called street performers, buskers, street musicians, minstrels, or troubadours.

Street performance dates back to antiquity, and occurs all over the world.]

That noted, these courageous people play an important role in every city’s makeup.

An interesting point is that although the term buskers is well known in Australia, it is not known so well in Deutschland; street musician is the term used.

There seems to be two types of music buskers in Europe.
1. The traditional one that positions him/herself in a nice setting where people pass through and where he/she may find the most appreciative (and generous) people; and,
2. A newer kind that you may see performing on trains and playing his/her music and then approaching people and asking for money.

What instruments do street musicians play?

This varies greatly but most common would seem to be the guitar, followed by recorders, violins, drums…and of course the accordion.

New instruments mean that hip drum machines have been included to the instrument repertoire as well as many new one man bands are using karaoke recordings on CD or sequenced MIDI recordings for backup.

Buskers (street musicians) perform all over the world.

ToTarTu’s present project focuses on the ones in Berlin.