Keep stag and hen parties away from your mics, York buskers told

First they came for the inflatable phalluses. Then they banned alcohol on certain incoming trains. Now, York wants to stop stag and hen parties from filling the air inside the city’s medieval walls with their drunken singing.

Buskers in the former Viking stronghold are to be instructed not to give their microphones to members of the public, following complaints about boozed-up caterwauling.

The neighbourhood enforcement team from City of York council has planned Saturday afternoon joint patrols with Make It York, which manages the city centre, to tell all buskers there not to hand their microphones to members of the public.

“All buskers will be provided with a laminated card they can show the public, which states that they are not permitted by CYC or MIY to hand over their microphone, in the interest of reducing noise nuisance and antisocial behaviour,” according to a report to be discussed by councillors in York on Tuesday evening.

Three years ago, the city drew up a code of conduct for buskers. Advice included not playing the same song too many times – “repeating a limited number of songs/performance pieces is one of the main causes of complaints” – and moving after two hours. “Moving after finishing your repertoire will help to avoid businesses growing tired of hearing you and make complaints much less likely,” the code advised.

It suggested drummers use brushes to muffle their beats and asked brass players to consider dampers. “If backing accompaniment is part of your act, it should be secondary and unobtrusive. If you’re not actually performing, please do not leave a backing track running,” buskers were told.

The code of conduct will be updated, councillors have been told.

York, long a popular destination for tourists interested in the Roman and Viking eras, has become a magnet for stag and hen parties in recent years.

In June 2015, the York Press carried a warning on its front page that the city had become a “no-go area”, with “visiting hordes” from South Yorkshire and the north-east to blame. The story quoted “city leaders” from the council, North Yorkshire police and British Transport Police, who wrote a letter to pubs and bars saying: “York is no longer viewed as a safe, family friendly city on a Saturday.”

As a result of all the publicity, the council set up a “stag and hen parties scrutiny review”. It found there were more hen parties than stag groups visiting York, and police officers had been speaking to anyone waving an inflatable. “There have been no instances of people refusing to deflate them,” the review said.