What Is Spokane Street Music Week?
Hello and and welcome to the official site of Spokane Street Music Week. This is an annual event with two purposes:
Food bank officials say they can purchase six pounds of food for every dollar donated. So this means that this year’s Street Music donations will go on to buy 12.3 TONS of food!
Spokane Street Music Week has grown greatly since Doug Clark began it began as a solo act, wandering the downtown sidewalks with an acoustic guitar.
Clark, a columnist for The Spokesman-Review, raised $503 that first year. He wrote about his experience as a busker and donated what he made to the food bank.
Noting Clark’s success, an editor suggested that he do it again the following year and open it up to other performers.
He did and the event has taken off ever since. Now somewhere between 100 and 150 performers give their time and talents during Spokane Street Music Week. Over the years the event has raised more than $20,000 to help feed the area’s hungry.
Clark believes that a key reason for the event’s steady growth and success is due to its simplicity.
Spokane Street Music Week takes place from noon to 1 p.m. during the second full business week in June, Monday through Friday.
Performers can take part one day or every day. It’s entirely up to them.
All they have to do is come to a central location in Spokane’s downtown business core prior to noon. They sign in and are given a red collection bucket and a event badge (which they can keep) that identifies them as a participant.
It’s then up to the artist to go find a sidewalk spot to perform until 1 p.m. Then the artist brings the bucket back to our command center and turns in the donations.
“There are no stages. There are no electric outlets,” said Clark. “We want the artists to have a true street music experience. If a performer wants amplification it must be battery-powered and portable and comply with the city’s noise ordinance.”
Another key to the success is that Spokane Street Music Week is open to performers of ALL ages, ALL levels of ability and ALL artistic endeavors.
Spokane Street Music Week participants have ranged from symphony virtuosos to beginners.
We’ve had a world champion accordion player and an elementary school marimba band. We’ve had a group of high school Scottish Highland dancers with bagpipe band.
Our Spokane Police Chief, Anne Kirkpatrick, joined us one year to play spoons with a bluegrass band. Mayors and city council members have pitched in to sing, tap tambourines or just show support.
For the last two years, Peter Rivera, the original lead singer of Rare Earth, has wowed listeners by singing his mega hits like “Get Ready,” and “I Just Want to Celebrate.”
We’ve even hosted street magicians, 11-year-old jugglers and an artist who painted on butcher paper laid out on the sidewalk.
Spokane Street Music Week is proclaimed each year as a city-sanctioned event by the mayor of Spokane.
Because of the event’s simple nature, we believe that the Street Music Week concept can be duplicated in almost any community that has lunch-hour foot traffic and vibrant music and art scene.
“And we would be glad to help any city that wants to get involved,” added Clark. “All it takes is a bit of organization and a dash of desire.”
- Fill downtown Spokane with a variety of music and performance art ever year during the noon hours of one business week.
- Raise money for our 2nd Harvest Inland Northwest Food Bank.
Food bank officials say they can purchase six pounds of food for every dollar donated. So this means that this year’s Street Music donations will go on to buy 12.3 TONS of food!
Spokane Street Music Week has grown greatly since Doug Clark began it began as a solo act, wandering the downtown sidewalks with an acoustic guitar.
Clark, a columnist for The Spokesman-Review, raised $503 that first year. He wrote about his experience as a busker and donated what he made to the food bank.
Noting Clark’s success, an editor suggested that he do it again the following year and open it up to other performers.
He did and the event has taken off ever since. Now somewhere between 100 and 150 performers give their time and talents during Spokane Street Music Week. Over the years the event has raised more than $20,000 to help feed the area’s hungry.
Clark believes that a key reason for the event’s steady growth and success is due to its simplicity.
Spokane Street Music Week takes place from noon to 1 p.m. during the second full business week in June, Monday through Friday.
Performers can take part one day or every day. It’s entirely up to them.
All they have to do is come to a central location in Spokane’s downtown business core prior to noon. They sign in and are given a red collection bucket and a event badge (which they can keep) that identifies them as a participant.
It’s then up to the artist to go find a sidewalk spot to perform until 1 p.m. Then the artist brings the bucket back to our command center and turns in the donations.
“There are no stages. There are no electric outlets,” said Clark. “We want the artists to have a true street music experience. If a performer wants amplification it must be battery-powered and portable and comply with the city’s noise ordinance.”
Another key to the success is that Spokane Street Music Week is open to performers of ALL ages, ALL levels of ability and ALL artistic endeavors.
Spokane Street Music Week participants have ranged from symphony virtuosos to beginners.
We’ve had a world champion accordion player and an elementary school marimba band. We’ve had a group of high school Scottish Highland dancers with bagpipe band.
Our Spokane Police Chief, Anne Kirkpatrick, joined us one year to play spoons with a bluegrass band. Mayors and city council members have pitched in to sing, tap tambourines or just show support.
For the last two years, Peter Rivera, the original lead singer of Rare Earth, has wowed listeners by singing his mega hits like “Get Ready,” and “I Just Want to Celebrate.”
We’ve even hosted street magicians, 11-year-old jugglers and an artist who painted on butcher paper laid out on the sidewalk.
Spokane Street Music Week is proclaimed each year as a city-sanctioned event by the mayor of Spokane.
Because of the event’s simple nature, we believe that the Street Music Week concept can be duplicated in almost any community that has lunch-hour foot traffic and vibrant music and art scene.
“And we would be glad to help any city that wants to get involved,” added Clark. “All it takes is a bit of organization and a dash of desire.”
