Street Music Week concludes after reaching its goal of more than $300,000

The sound of guitars, tambourines, ukuleles and more filled downtown Spokane, the Garland District and Coeur d’Alene for a single hour between noon and 1 p.m. this past week with buskers raising more than $20,000 during Street Music Week, which began on Monday and concluded on Friday.

The street performers used their allotted 1 hour to solicit donations for Second Harvest with their red buckets that read: $1 = five meals.

Doug Clark, a retired longtime columnist for The Spokesman-Review, said that this year’s Street Music Week was a great success, despite the rain and cold weather early in the week.

The event has raised more than $300,000 during its two-decade run, providing more than 1.4 million meals for the hungry, Clark said.

Jim Lyons, co-organizer, estimated that Street Music Week raised about $23,000 during the five days, not including any of the online donations. Additionally, Lyons said more than 400 buskers came out to support the event downtown, on Garland and in Coeur d’Alene.

“One of the best things is we had several kids who had never played before,” Lyons said. “They were very nervous and before they went, we just (told) them, ‘It really doesn’t matter how much you make, it’s just that you’re out here giving back to the community.’ ”

Lyons said donors can still send money online for the next couple of weeks, either through the website streetmusicweek.com or on their Facebook page.

“It’s a great cause, and people need food,” said Acousticats guitarist Ken Paige, playing near Wall and Main, “especially in this economy.”

Within earshot of the Acousticats, 10-year-old Christopher Anderson played the violin, raking in $50 within the first 10 minutes, his mother Lanny Anderson said.

Scott Arbuckle played Scottish and Irish tunes on his guitar on Spokane Falls Boulevard and Wall Street. Like many of the buskers performing during Street Music Week, Arbuckle said he scheduled to take off work during the hourlong period from his downtown office. Street Music Week doesn’t just support a good cause, he said. It also gets him out of his comfort zone.

“It’s also fun for me because I get a little bit nervous playing music in public,” he said. “It’s a challenge for me.”

East on Spokane Falls Boulevard from Arbuckle, a group of eight women performed as part of the Ukulele Ladies (and Steve). The group is part of the larger Spokane group, the Ukestra, who frequently visited nursing homes and made public performances. Those events came to a stop during COVID, group spokeswoman Jeanne Schrock said.

“Performing for people again is so fun,” she said as her fellow ukulele players packed up their instruments just after 1 p.m. “It’s like the sun started to shine again.”