18/07/2026
So today we found ourselves dealing with a pretty unacceptable situation.
First thing this morning, someone came into our premises demanding that we use our equipment to lower the canopy belonging to the business next door so a busker could perform. We explained that it isn’t our property, the owners weren’t there, and we weren’t prepared to touch another business’s equipment. If anything had been damaged, we would have been the ones held responsible. Despite explaining this clearly, we were asked another three times.
The busker was performing as part of the Farmers’ Market, so we immediately tried to resolve the issue through the organisers. We asked the Farmers’ Market security to contact the manager, sent her a text message ourselves, and understand that several other people also attempted to get hold of her. Despite this, it took around an hour before she arrived, during which time the situation was allowed to escalate unnecessarily.
Once the busker started performing, the busker himself repeatedly came into our premises asking our two 16 year old members of staff to turn our music off. They turned it down as much as they were permitted to, but he returned another two times after they explained they were not authorised to switch it off completely.
He then used his PA system to encourage members of the public to come into our premises and tell the girls to turn the music off. This resulted in a number of people entering the business to pressure two teenage members of staff who were simply following instructions.
That is completely unacceptable. It goes beyond a simple disagreement and becomes harassment. More importantly, it raises serious safeguarding concerns. No 16 year old should be put in the position of dealing with repeated confrontations from adults while at work.
The situation escalated further when one woman entered our other business in an aggressive manner purely to make it clear she wanted the music switched off. When we tried to explain that our concern was the welfare of our young staff, she responded by making comments about how much we supposedly pay them, which had absolutely nothing to do with the issue.
There is no justification for repeatedly confronting two 16 year olds or encouraging members of the public to do the same. They have no authority to make these decisions and should never have been put in that position.
We fully appreciate that issues can arise during public events, but organisers have a responsibility to deal with them promptly and professionally. Allowing a situation like this to continue for around an hour without intervention left two young members of staff exposed to repeated harassment from adults, and that is simply not acceptable.
Just to clarify for some people they were not unsupervised, there was a 30 year old and a 50 year old supervising but not serving at the time and they took over as soon as the incidents started taking place.
