Bosses at Bristol Bus Station are to set up the city’s first official ‘Busking Spot’ where busking will be officially sanctioned and performers will have to pass an audition to play.

The city might be a well-known busking hotspot, with the likes of George Ezra, Phat Bollard and Soeur all performing in the streets of the city centre in recent years.

But until now there has never been an official busking spot which is organised and where performers have to audition for.

First West of England is now inviting Bristol’s performing artists to audition for the chance to take up one of the spots, which will run on Fridays and Saturdays inside the bus station itself.

First’s operations director Chris Hanson said they wanted to bring something extra for bus passengers, and also help musicians out because they’ve had a harder lockdown than most with a busking ban in force until as late as May this year.

“Bristol’s performing arts scene is one of the most vibrant in the country and we wanted to show our support for it in some way,” he said. “We’ve all missed the thrill of listening to live music so we think our customers are going to love this as they pass through the station.

“There is such a large number of people coming through the bus station every day, this is a great opportunity to be seen and heard by literally thousands and maybe even get ‘spotted’ by a talent scout and become the next Ed Sheeran or Sheryl Crow.”

Bristol has an formal busking code, which was written up by Bristol City Council in 2017 in conjunction with city centre business leaders, the police and buskers themselves…

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