ARTS HUB AUSTRALIA — “In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?” This was the premise for an experiment carried out by the Post in Washington, DC. A renowned Classical musician, Joshua Bell, performed at L’Enfant Plaza Metro station during morning peak hour. What they forecast is that Joshua would make a couple of hundred dollars and draw a crowd. The results: in 45 minutes he made $32 and only seven people stopped to listen for a short period.
For the sake of this article I decided to risk it all and travel to a banal setting – the Bourke St Mall and nearby precinct – to talk to some buskers about their experience.