MUSICAL STREET PERFORMANCES AS A SURVIVAL STRATEGY DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS: STREET MUSICIANS IN ERMOU ST., ATHENS: THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAMME STREET MUSICIANS
Keywords:
Street musicians, street performers, street artists, Ermou St. pedestrian precinct, Athens, Covid-19 pandemic, non-standard labour, employment insecurity, street ethnographyAbstract
The present study draws upon fieldwork that we carried out as a group and as individuals on Ermou St. in the centre of Athens, Greece in 2020 and 2021. It is part of a wider research programme under the aegis of the Special Research Funds Account of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is entitled ‘Street Musicians: Multiple Identities, Performance Strategies, Artistic Expression: Ethnographic Research in Ermou. St., Athens.’ The present article touches briefly upon various theoretical questions regarding street musicians and then deals more deeply with the matter of street musicians and with the subject of which groups of musicians are to be found during this period in the Ermou St. pedestrian precinct. The article also deals with the methodology that we employed and how we approached these artists, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. The main part of the article presents and analyses the strategies used on a daily basis by these persons, in order to attract a broader audience and so to earn income. We also deal with the particular survival strategies that they are currently employing during the pandemic.
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