Noise complaints about buskers in the lower Octagon forced the Dunedin City Council to create a booking system to give performers exclusive slots to play to cruise ship passengers.
Council environmental health manager Ros MacGill said the council had received several noise complaints about buskers performing simultaneously to cruise ship passengers in the lower Octagon.
"They are all trying get in there and get their slice of the pie,'' Ms MacGill said.
Last Friday, when cruise ship Golden Princess was in Dunedin, three buskers in the Octagon carriageway were performing to passengers.
"It was too loud and was creating a noise nuisance.''
No complaints had been lodged by cruise ship passengers.
In a bid to stop the noise pollution, the council sent letters to the 247 permitted buskers in Dunedin about a new booking system.
When a cruise ship was in Dunedin on a week day, buskers had to book a half-hour slots between 1.30pm and 4.30pm to be the only performer in the lower Octagon.
If a busker performed in the lower Octagon between those hours without a booked slot, an Armourguard Security officer, contracted by the council, would tell them to move on.
If the busker refused to move and continued to play, the officer could issue an "excessive noise direction''.
"They must stop playing immediately and we can take their equipment from them,'' Ms MacGill said.
Buskers could only book one slot per day.
No bookings were required on the weekend.
The booking system worked well yesterday and only one busker began performing without a slot but quickly "complied'' to an officer's orders.
The stallholders in the lower Octagon were pleased with the noise levels yesterday, she said.
A 76-year-old busker, who did not want to be named, booked a slot to perform in the carriageway from 2pm yesterday.
When the person who had booked the 1.30pm slot failed to show, the man started his saxophone performance 15 minutes earlier to maximise his take.
The retired Dunedin man said a half-hour slot was not long enough: "It should be an hour.''
The best time to busk was when a bus was late to arrive in the carriageway because the queue of tourists was long and increased the captive audience.
His most lucrative day busking in the carriageway, earned him $130 in half an hour, by playing tunes such as As Time Goes By, Moonlight Bay, Slowboat to China and Bye Bye Blackbird.
