The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association is backing demands by buskers to let them stay out later and play louder in the downtown core.

Under current bylaws, buskers have to stop playing at 10 p.m. PT, and they can't use equipment to amplify their sound.

Charles Gauthier, executive director of the association, says street performers made the downtown a vibrant scene during the Olympics, and that should be encouraged.

"I think it's about embracing arts and culture," he said. "It's what makes urban environments exciting." Gauthier is lobbying City Hall for changes to the bylaws.

"It's very difficult for performers to perform au naturel for long periods of time, especially with the traffic noise we can hear, so amplification needs to be allowed," he said.

This summer, the association will also host a Friday night concert series downtown featuring local buskers, and it hopes to install so-called busk-stops along Granville Street to further promote the idea.

Buskers David Morin and Marc Stokes agreed the changes are a good idea, as they set up on the sidewalk near the Canada Line station on Granville, near a popular bar and nightclub district.

Under current bylaws the rappers standard set-up of mixing boards and amplifiers is not allowed, because it pumps up the volume, but they say it is welcomed in other major cities.

"You go to other places like Montreal or anywhere in Europe, and it's normal, it's the standard. Anything else is just ludicrous," said Morin.

The rappers said most of the evening crowd arrives after 10 p.m. and peaks between 11 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. on weekends. That's when people are also the most generous towards buskers, they said.