Slide 1 ~ 9UP Presentation
Sharon: Hello everyone. Thank you for coming here tonight to watch and listen to our 9UP
presentation. We hope you enjoy it, and please don’t hesitate to ask any questions at the
end.
Slide 2 ~ Our hypothesis
Helen: In our group we have Hugh, Sharon, Brydie, Agnes and I am Helen. We spent 2 days
in the city researching and investigating our hypothesis of “Musical buskers are the most
popular.”.
Slide 3 ~ Why did we choose our hypothesis?
Hugh: We decided to choose this topic because we thought it would be interesting to
investigate buskers and their profession, and what type people enjoy the most.
Agnes: Within our group, Helen and Brydie set up surveys to help give us more of an
understanding and knowledge of our topic. Hugh and I created and conducted interviews
with buskers and the busking and program coordinator from the council of the City of
Melbourne. Sharon then recorded this information and tallied it up.
Slide 4 ~ Who did we survey?
Brydie: We surveyed 100 people using 6 questions to determine the accuracy of our
hypothesis. Nearly the same amount of males and females were surveyed, although there
were slightly more males.
Slide 5 ~ The ages of our surveyees
Sharon: The different age groups of the people surveyed varied. The most common age
group was 21 to 30, but not by much. We found this an important question to ask, because
then we could have some idea about the public’s general information. The same goes for
the gender.
Slide 6 ~ Are you interested in buskers?
Helen: The first question we asked as part of our survey was “Are you interested in
buskers?”. We asked this to find out the extent of people’s interest in buskers. The majority
of our surveyees said “yes” and most of the remainder said “sometimes”, as in, depending
upon the busker’s act, and also their mood.
Slide 7 ~ How much money are you willing to give a busker?
Hugh: The second question asked was “How much money are you willing to give a busker?”.
We thought this would be an informative question to ask, to get some background
information about buskers and their earnings. Two-thirds of our surveyees said that they
would give loose change, but there were quite a few that would give more, depending on
the busker’s talent.
Slide 8 ~ How long would you watch a busker for?
Agnes: To further explore people’s interest in buskers, we asked “How long would you
watch a busker for?”. We found that, for an average busker, people would watch the
performance for about 5 minutes. Once again, people said that they would watch for a
longer amount of time, if it was an interesting and enjoyable busker, and if they had some
time to stay and watch.
Slide 9 ~ Do you think busking adds to the culture of Melbourne?
Brydie: To broaden our knowledge of people’s thoughts on buskers, we asked the public if
they thought busking added to the culture of Melbourne. We found that most people
thought busking does contribute towards Melbourne’s culture because of the way it adds to
the vibe, the mood and the overall feel of the city.
Slide 10 ~ What is your favourite type of busker?
Sharon: The last question on our survey, which was the most important one of all, was
“What is your favourite type of busker?”. This was important, as this is the key question to
support our hypothesis because the hypothesis itself revolves around this question. The
overwhelming result was that 69% of people surveyed thought that musical buskers are the
most enjoyable. 5% voted for a magician, 11% ticked circus/stunt buskers, 7% each voted
for none and other, and a low of 1% put their hand up for a statue actor.
Slide 11 ~ Busker interviews
Helen: As well as handing out surveys, we also interviewed 8 buskers to help with our
results. We asked numerous questions relating to busking in Melbourne. Questions included
queries about the new busking permit law, an estimate of the number of people in the
busker’s crowd, and how much money they earned, just to name a few.
Slide 12 ~ Busker interviews video
Helen: We now have an edited video of the interviews with the buskers.
Slide 13 ~ Elizabeth Russell interview
Brydie: As well as interviewing the buskers, we have also interviewed the busking and
program coordinator from the council of the City of Melbourne. Her name is Elizabeth
Russell and her role is managing the busking policy and the permits. Elizabeth has been
working at the council for 4 or 5 years, and last year she was appointed the role of the
busking and program coordinator. She manages 1,416 licensed buskers that vary from
musical acts to stunt performances. This number is growing rapidly by about 30 new buskers
every 2 weeks.
Agnes: With her, we discussed the new permitting law that may be coming in, which she
informed us would only take place in Bourke Street Mall. This was because the Melbourne
public was surveyed, and an overwhelming number of people didn’t want to have buskers
auditioned. She thought that buskers are a big part of Melbourne’s culture and that
Melbourne is an “incubator” city of art and music.
Hugh: Her favourite type of busker varies, but she does enjoy musical performances, and
especially enjoys acts that get the crowd involved. However, she doesn’t think of herself as
much of a potential busker. Elizabeth was a lovely person to talk to, and we were very
grateful that she gave up her time to talk to us.
Slide 14 ~ Elizabeth Russell interview video
Hugh: Here is a shortened-down version of the interview...
Slide 15 ~ What we discovered
Brydie: After all our research time in the city, our results show that our hypothesis of
“Musical buskers are the most popular.” was proven correct. The reasons for this included
that the majority of the surveyed people said that, generally, they find musical performance
buskers the most enjoyable. People like them due to the exceptional quality of unsigned
music.
Sharon: As shown before, 69% of people enjoyed musical buskers the most, which supports
our hypothesis. This is more than two-thirds of our results, meaning that musical
performance buskers win by a long way, as the next highest type of busker is a circus/stunt
performer on 11%.
Slide 16 ~ Photo story
Agnes: We really enjoyed our time in the city, as we got to meet some really great and
social people during our data collection.
Hugh: One of the buskers we met was a statue actor that wouldn’t talk to us because he
didn’t want to get out of character.
(Hugh “improvises”; everyone contributes randomly if they feel like it)
Slide 17 ~ The End
Helen: We’d like to thank all the BYTES mentors, especially Mr Hoskin and Miss Marks for
mentoring us through the stressful, yet fun-filled BYTES lessons related to 9UP. Thank you
very much for your attention and listening. Does anyone have any questions?
(Hugh & Agnes answer questions primarily; Helen, Brydie & Sharon answer questions
secondarily)