The Psychology of Street Performance

Colin Young

Railroad street in downtown Great Barrington had just seen the last of the Saturday sunlight as celebrated professional street performer Chadd Dietz, or “Wacky Chad”, stepped up to do his final performance of the night. “One thing I want to say about busking,” he said as he prepared to ride a 15-foot unicycle, “is that it’s you who determines the value of the show. it’s up to you to place value on it.”

This phrasing highlights how busking serves as an alternative to ticketed performances. It allows performers and audience alike to avoid the hassle of planning and scheduling around large shows and create a much more authentic experience. In fact, studies have shown that street performance has actual positive psychological effects in terms of an audience’s perception of urban areas.  

Wacky Chad and other performers this summer at Berkshire Busk! have done a great job expressing this reality of busking. Their concert space, their stage, their stadium, is the street, and that’s the business model that they love. 

However, busking has become an increasingly rare artform. With so much of life going online, the presence of live street performance is dwindling. Now, more than ever, it’s important for the audience to place value where they see it. And that value goes beyond just a few dollars in the pocket of a guitarist on the side of the road. Busking has an impact on towns and cities everywhere. 

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong in December of 2021 used a psychological approach to analyze how busking is perceived and judged by both performers and passersby. Performers advocated for how it provides entertainment, offers learning experiences, and allows them to showcase their abilities to a wide audience. At the same time, pedestrians also saw busking and street performing as beneficial. When shown different street areas, participants gave the most positive ratings to those with buskers performing. They viewed it as more comfortable and lively, less cramped, and easier to navigate. Busking was also correlated with higher ratings of sociality, conviviality, and a stronger sense of arts and culture. Participants rated areas with buskers 10% higher in terms of comfort, 7% higher in activeness, and 6% higher in overall liking.

It should come as no surprise that bringing music and artistry into a downtown area positively increases people’s perceptions of it. Many memorable city experiences of my own have come from seeing a singer, painter, or poet-for-hire along the road. And if you’ve ever lived in a city, you absolutely know the rush of people seeming to get where they need to go as fast as possible. Yet, it’s the buskers who are the ones who can stop that train and convince people to take a pause in their busy days to appreciate live performance. 

One of Wacky Chad’s final comments of the night was “The busking model is like this: everyone is welcome, everyone can watch.” What buskers bring to public space is far more than something personal to them. They create community. They build an audience just from those walking down the street. There’s something quite heartwarming about that.