All the Street's a Stage!

Busking in the Good ol' Days

Street performances or 'busking' is a phenomenon that has gained much currency in recent times. However, this practice of performing on the streets has been around since ancient times. For centuries, talented individuals have embraced the streets as their stage, using these hot-spots of public life as platforms to sell their talents and earn a living. Performers were rewarded in cash or in kind, where sometimes even a free meal or lodging for the night was accepted graciously as payment.

Ain't No Cakewalk

Busking is a difficult activity, for getting the attention of perennially busy pedestrians, commuters and bystanders can prove to be a Herculean task. Getting them to reach into their pockets and extract a few bucks proves to be an even bigger challenge. To add to this, the ubiquitous laws around busking that aim to "regulate" this practice can stifle creativity and snatch away lucrative performance spaces.

Street Performances and Mumbai

The streets of Mumbai are culturally rich spaces, teeming with vehicles, pedestrians, hawkers, street urchins and stray animals. It's a vibrant mix, chaotic and disorganized, but bubbling with life and activity. However, if there's one thing absent from this mix, it is art and entertainment. Years ago, Bombay still witnessed street performances, in fact, street plays played an important role during our freedom struggle. Unfortunately, over time, this culture of street performances made a slow but steady retreat.

Busking makes a Comeback

Eager to make busking a part of Mumbai's cultural repertoire, Mr. Ajit Dayal founded the NSPA Foundation. Interestingly, the NSPA was born out of an idea that was initially rejected by elite art institutions in the city. Finding no takers for his unconventional idea, he decided to take things in his own hands and set up an organization that promoted upcoming local artists. This led to the birth of the NSPA Foundation. We launched our first performance in October 2012 and have continued on our mission of taking art to the people since then.

Also, instead of them having to scout for pitches, the NSPA team does this for them and then throws open a list of venues to perform at. As per an artist's interest, he/she can select locations that are convenient and feasible.

This is How we do!

We mostly hold acoustic performances with minimum instruments. This helps us keep a check on sound levels. Also, we have a strict 'No Bollywood' policy, which means our artists can only perform album tracks or original compositions.

We like our street performances to have a lively, interactive format. Hence we encourage our artists to share information about themselves, their band and genre. This not only helps our artists promote themselves but it also informs people about the different art forms and genres that exist.

Artist Promotion

To help us gauge our performances and make positive changes, we invite the audience to give feedback after every performance. We also promote our artists performances via social media platforms, our website, blog posts, podcasts, SoundCloud and regular newsletters.

Widening the NSPA Reach

From just three venues, we gradually began to increase the number of venues in our kitty. The team put in much effort to pitch the idea and our dream to as many authorities as possible. Although it was a slow process, we eventually began to bag new venues. Here is a list and short summary of the venues we currently perform at :

Our Experience so Far

When it comes to busking, we've realized that there can be some really good days, but, there can also be some bad ones. Sometimes, our performances have attracted huge crowds, much applause, song requests and many kind and encouraging words. However, on the not so good days, our artists have performed for hours without a single person stopping by. But, we take this with a pinch of salt and look forward with enthusiasm to our next performance, for, there will always be a better day, a better audience and a better performance!

Our vision for the future

We've come a long way since our first performance at Churchgate station. From that day, we've been taking long, steady strides in the direction of growth and progress. Our goal is to make busking not just an accepted, but a popular phenomenon, where artists performing at street corners and in open spaces will become a common sight, and people wont hesitate to stand next to a bunch of musicians or dancers and have a good time.

We also aim to take NSPA to other states in India so that artists from all around the country can benefit from our undertaking. We hope to target more art forms so that artists of every kind get a chance to showcase their talents and earn from doing what they're good at.