In rapid fire, the Mayor’s office has launched several controversial initiatives to cut the noise in Nice.
Photo Best of Nice Blog
First, last year’s rules on street musicians are starting to be enforced: No more speakers (yea!), musicians must be pre-approved for quality, can only play during specified hours, and only in designated places like Place Massena, Cours Saleya, etc. Whereas the new rules will spare us all a lot of grief from the many horrible buskers, the rules will also put a major crimp on the many talented musicians. The first casualty: the fantastic Piano Man, Steve Villa-Massone left Nice last year in protest when the rule was first made.
Next is the new Open-air Alcohol Ban that prohibits drinking in the streets, beaches and parks from 8pm-5am. This could cut down on late-night drunken singing and fights, which would be a good thing. But what about beach picnics? Are we expected to forgo the wine?! Evidently the rule will be selectively enforced, so if you are not breaking bottles or playing the tom-toms late into the night, the patrols should let you be.
The most controversy has come over the Noisy Wedding Ban. Eastern European and North African wedding traditions include driving through town with flags flying and honking madly as if their country just won the World Cup… and with 30 weddings a day on the weekends, this gets really tiresome. The new ban went into effect last weekend, and prohibits raucous weddings, excessive honking, and disrupting traffic… all of which actually seemed on the rise last weekend! Opponents mounted a clever protest: a silent wedding, and are busy trying to find photos of Mayor Estrosi’s own wedding to see if it indulged in any of the forbidden acts!
All of these new rules have many people up in arms: is a less noisy Nice worth becoming a Nanny State? Will licensing street musicians kill the spontaneity that buskers embody? Are these new rules crossing the line of personal freedom? What do you think?
Photo credit: Silent wedding courtesy of Philippe Biancheri; Busker by Best of Nice Blog
Nice-Matin: A compter du 1er avril, l’alcool sera hors la loi au centre-ville de Nice, Un faux mariage silencieux pour protester contre l’arrete d’Estrosi, Metro France: Les artistes de rue dans la collimateur
This is ridiculous. I love all the buskers and the noisy weddings – louder the better! The only sound that’s not pleasant is people moaning about the noise.
Qu’est ce que j’en pense? Great news! They won’t bust us for a bottle of red on the beach but we can definitivement do without those obnoxious noisy weddings! In fact Coco has been packing a pistolet with an eye to sharpshooting some of those heinous celebrations! She will sleep better tonight. Bonne nuit a tous!
All three initiatives are great – especially about the buskers. And this is from someone who loves music, especially when played live, by local talent, in a spontaneous manner. But let’s face it, the level of quality of the buskers in Nice is quite pathetic. There are a few people and/or groups of a high quality and I support them 100% but those passing off as ‘buskers’ but are clearly nutters with a guitar/violin/accordion + speaker need to go. Many other cities have similar regulations and I see nothing wrong with having to prove your talent is sufficient before subjecting the general public to your music (or interpretation thereof) and/or play only in designated areas.
Regarding the drinking ban – again 100% support, but frankly it should be applied right across the board, no exceptions. But I do love me an evening beach picnic with wine in the summer, so am someone conflicted on this one! I think the real problem is not always alchol, but merely causing a public nuisance. Any person/group causing a public nuisance should be fined, whether alcohol is involved or not. Sounds a bit like the bad apples spoiling the lot – ruining it for those of us able to have a responsible night out with alcohol in a public place without it ending up in police intervention.
Too right, let the noisy weddings go back if they want to celebrate their weddings like they do back home. Issa Nissa!