Oh-yo, no one will hear – Newspaper Kommersant No. 233 (7434) of 12/15/2022
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The Parliament of St. Petersburg adopted a bill banning the performance of street musicians from May 1, 2023 without the consent of the city authorities. The new norms oblige artists not only to ensure that the street performance is appropriate for its venue, but also to assist in maintaining public order and the public safety of citizens and the preservation of green spaces and landscaping elements. The fine for violating the rules will be up to 40 thousand rubles. At the same time, St. Petersburg will be divided into three zones: in a number of areas, the use of sound amplifying equipment on the streets will be completely prohibited, in others its power may exceed 500 watts.
The authorities of St. Petersburg have been discussing the idea of introducing stricter regulation of the activities of street musicians for several years. Usually, entertaining the public, amateur artists give concerts in those parts of the city that tourists like to visit. But most often they perform on Nevsky Prospekt, Palace Square and near the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station. The leader of the Bangkok group, Petr Olesov, claims that the daily earnings of musicians can range from 1,000 to 50,000 rubles. Mr. Olesov said that the police regularly disrupted the performances of street performers and even detained the band members.
Denis Chetyrbok, the current deputy of the Legislative Assembly, came up with a legislative initiative to streamline the rules in this area back in 2020. The bill was passed on first reading, but then stalled. In 2022, Governor Alexander Beglov took up street performers and submitted to the city parliament a draft law “On organizing and holding street performances and amending the law “On Administrative Offenses in St. Petersburg”.” On December 14, the document was adopted in the third reading.
The regulation stipulates that street musicians cannot perform in front of the public without the permission of the city administration. Artists will be required to agree with officials on the place, date and time of each of their performances. The law will come into force on May 1, 2023, when the new tourist season will be in full swing in St. Petersburg. During this time, the regional government will develop a mechanism for submitting applications for speeches and a process for their approval.
Petersburg, according to the adopted document, will be divided into three zones. In the first, the use of sound amplifying equipment will be completely prohibited. In the second, the permitted power should not exceed 500 watts. In the third, noisiest, the authorities will allow musicians to use equipment with a power of more than 500 watts. Smolny will publish the list of locations later, it will include about 200 addresses.
The new rules oblige artists not only to ensure that the street performance is appropriate for the venue, but also to provide “assistance in maintaining public order and public safety of citizens” and “preservation of green spaces and landscaping elements.” The fine for violating the terms of the performance for individuals will be from 1.5 to 5 thousand rubles, for individual entrepreneurs – from 30 to 40 thousand rubles.
Member of the city parliament Denis Chetyrbok (United Russia) stressed that the law will protect the rights of residents of apartment buildings who suffer from street concerts in the summer. The text of the document says that the adoption of measures is necessary for “the purposes of ensuring law and order and public safety.” Mr. Chetyrbok is confident that the initiative will save the musicians from a number of problems, since the administrative procedure for notifying about performances is still in effect. “Prior to this, the musician had to coordinate the performance according to a complex scheme, which is used when organizing large-scale concerts, for example, on Palace Square. And if he did not do this, then he was detained and fined, ”said the parliamentarian. The regulation, which the deputy is talking about, involves sending a notification to the district administration or the city’s culture committee 15 days before the event, depending on the number of concert participants. Such performances are treated as cultural events outside the places intended for this. However, the St. Petersburg musicians, with whom Kommersant talked, claim that they did not know about this order or simply did not follow it.
During the discussion, the initiative was criticized by the Yabloko and Just Russia parties. In the amendments to the second reading, the deputies of the factions proposed to replace the coordination mechanism with the procedure for booking a place, date and time on a special website in real time. Musicians in Moscow arrange their performances in this way, said the proponents of this idea. However, the offer was rejected. “The current principle in the law, which provides for obtaining approvals, means the ability to ban speeches for any reason. He retains the scheme known from the experience of organizing public actions, when, in response to any application, one can say that the place and time have already been taken, but we won’t say by whom, ”Boris Vishnevsky insisted (“Yabloko”). “The system has a permissive-prohibitive order: an official can issue a permit to someone, not to someone. At the same time, he does not have to explain his decision, ”Oleg Maksakov, a fellow party member, supported him.
“Out of habit, street musicians will continue to perform without approval, for which they will receive fines,” Petr Olesov commented on the adoption of the law. “They will become disenfranchised, underground and will be forced to break the law.” “I believe that the performances of the musicians will be coordinated “on the spot” — selectively,” noted the musician and poet Mikhail Novitsky.
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