Perhaps you’ve watched buskers all over the world translate their talents into cash on sidewalks and subways. But have you ever seen more than one or two perform at a time? From January 21 to 31, meet more than 450 buskers down under as they invade Christchurch, New Zealand, for the World Buskers Festival.
In 2008, our own stomps got into the act(s) when she happened upon the world’s largest gathering of street performers.
“Multiple signs outside shops and cafes emblazoned with ‘Welcome buskers!’ or ‘Busking Special’ baffled me,” she writes. “I had no idea that buskers were such a huge market for cafe-style snacks or tourist wares and couldn't figure out why they'd been singled out over any other random group in the city.”
She soon discovered that these buskers were participants in the festival, and as she shares her impressions of the event, she also tells us where to find performances and recommends a few choice acts. These include the unicycle-riding Great Dave; the Piano Juggler; and, of course, the emphatically named Green!, seen above.
Look for those stars if you make it to the festival, or, for similar entertainment in the Northern Hemisphere, check out the talent at Buskers on the Boardwalk in St. John, New Brunswick, in late July.