Street Music Week will be back for its 23rd year on Monday, filling streets with live music across Spokane and in Coeur d’Alene all week at the noon hour and celebrating everything busking while raising money for Second Harvest Food Bank.

Dozens and sometimes even hundreds of performers each year entertain the lunch-going public every day for a week, and it’s never clear who’s going to show up, with performers only signing up shortly before they take stage on the street corner.

“The kind of magic about the event is I really never know who’s going to show up,” said Carey Eyers, who took over organizing in recent years. “Each and every day, it’s a different set of people, and I enjoy the depth and breadth of the performances.”

Performers will set up in downtown Spokane, in the Garland District and for the first time this year in the Perry District, as well as in Coeur d’Alene.

In 2002, former Spokesman-Review columnist and Street Music Week founder Doug Clark remarked in a column after a visit to Seattle that one could judge a city’s vibrancy by its street music scene.

“And in that case, Spokane really sucks,” Clark laughed.

He decided to put his guitar where his mouth was and play an hour on the street every day for a week, raising $400 that he walked into the front office of Second Harvest and dropped off.

The next year, he opened the event up to others, and it has grown beyond Clark’s expectations, attracting as many as 300 performers in the past. Some acts are incredible, and others amateurish, but Clark’s made a motto out of it: It’s not about virtuosity; it’s about generosity.

The spontaneity, not only of the performers, but also of the audience, is part of the joy of busking broadly and Street Music Week specifically, Eyers said.

“We’re 23 years in, and while there is some following who come down and check it out every year, there’s always a contingent of just people out walking, the foot traffic that happens to hear you as you’re walking by,” he said.

Since 2002, the event has reportedly raised $375,000 for Second Harvest.

The general locations of Street Music Week are as follows:

• Downtown Spokane at Main Avenue and Post Street.

• In the Garland District at 733 W. Garland Ave.

• In the Perry District at 1410 E. 11th Ave. in front of Wishing Tree Books.

• In Coeur d’Alene at 415 Sherman Ave. in front of Art Spirit Gallery.

Musicians, magicians, comedians and more can sign up on a whim any day next week, registering 15 to 20 minutes before noon each day at any of the above locations, where they’ll receive an official Street Music Week busking badge, a poster explaining the event and a red bucket (and QR code) for donations.

Downtown performers will be given courtesy parking at the Riverpark Square Parking garage, donated to benefit the event and Second Harvest, Eyers noted. Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown is also expected to make an official proclamation Thursday naming the week Street Music Week in the city.