Busking in Brighton & Hove

Find guidance on how to busk in the city and how to deal with noise complaints about buskers.

How to busk in Brighton & Hove

Everyone is welcome to busk on public land in Brighton & Hove. You don't have to apply for a licence to busk.

Your performance should be considerate of those around you. To avoid disturbing local residents and businesses, please:

  • play at reasonable volume - only the nearby audience should be able to hear you
  • avoid using amplifiers
  • stop performing when asked by local residents or businesses
  • avoid overstaying your welcome by moving to a different place, at least 50 metres away, every hour
  • only perform between the hours of 10am and 10pm
  • do not use drums when performing - they create lots of noise and complaints

What to do if you’re being disturbed by a busker

You can approach the busker and politely ask that they either reduce the noise or move on. If they don’t reduce the noise or if they stay and the noise is so loud, continuous or repeated and if this causes annoyance to others in the neighbourhood, please contact our team so that we can investigate.

To report a noise complaint or for advice, contact the Environmental Protection team. 

You can do this through our online Environmental Health report form. Or you can phone 01273 294 266 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Report a noise complaint at the weekend

If you report a noise complaint during the weekend, we’ll get back to you the following morning.

In an emergency, please phone Sussex Police on 999.

What we can do about buskers that cause problems

Problems with a specific busker

If a busker is causing regular problems in the city, we may investigate them for causing a 'statutory nuisance'. 

Find out what counts as a statutory nuisance from GOV.UK.

We’ll try to gather evidence about the problem with the help of the police, the busker could be given a CPW (Community Protection Warning). This would stop them from busking in parts of the city, or the whole of Brighton & Hove. If they break the CPW we could issue a CPN (Community Protection Notice) and take their equipment. Failure to comply with the CPN is an offence under the Anti-social Behaviour and Policing Act 2014. In the event of a statutory nuisance, the council will consider serving a noise Abatement Notice. If someone does not comply with an Abatement Notice they can be prosecuted and fined under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Problems with multiple buskers in the same location

It is very difficult to deal with busking problems where disturbance comes from the overall impact of different buskers playing in the same location.