Ocean City bans summer buskers from much of its boardwalk

The concerns of Marie Sacks-Wilner, a.k.a. the Flute Lady, and other boardwalk entertainers were cast aside last week as Ocean City’s Council approved higher permit fees and restrictions that will push the buskers to the fringes of the business district.

Sacks-Wilner said the entertainers do what they do for love, and for the joy of summer visitors. She said she would not be deterred.

“We do have one common bond, the love of performing, seeing the crowd interact on a warm summer night, watching children and grandchildren dance like nobody’s watching,” she told City Council at the Jan. 25 meeting where the new ordinance, carrying a $2,000 fine for violators, was adopted.

“We’re a motley group, our group of buskers,” she said. “Are we the perfect lot? Not yet. On a great night, I think it’s magical.”

Several other musicians spoke, including a legally blind pianist, a saxophonist, and a singer, but the council was unmoved.

“Not everybody sounds like the Three Tenors up out there,” said Councilman Jody Levchuk, who owns a business. He said the music coming from the performers out on the boardwalk was disruptive to businesses, especially stores playing their own music, and the cacophony sent some employees into panic attacks.

“To me in a way it’s panhandling,” Levchuk said. The new rules, he said, will be “helping out the overall dynamic and atmosphere of the boardwalk.”

Ocean City’s boardwalk atmosphere has been the subject of other debates and attempts at regulations, including those targeted at smokers, seagulls, drinkers, backpacks, and rowdy teens.

The new ordinance calls for a $200 permit fee for buskers and restricts them to two entertainment zones: between 5th and 8th streets and between 12th and 14th street, on the edges of the business district. The city will designate or construct performance spaces at street ends and on the pavilions in those areas.

Their sound cannot be audible for more than 30 feet from the boardwalk railing, the ordinance states. The use of any sharp objects is prohibited, “with the exception of sword swallowers.”

Performance days are Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

The ordinance empowers police to clear any crowds and to only ask the performer to leave if the crowds cannot be controlled through other means.

On Facebook, the regulations were greeted with mixed reviews. “Are we trying to [be] the town from Footloose?” wrote one commenter.