What are buskers? They are street performers. They perform circus acts like acrobatics or juggling, or singing and dancing, and they are always very clever and very funny. They get paid at the end of their show when the audience throws money in the hat. If the audience doesn’t like the show, the performer gets very little money.
Buskers like a big crowd to watch their show so they call out to people passing by. The more people who watch, the more money the buskers get. Buskers love involving the audience. They talk to the audience all the time and make jokes. Then they choose someone from the audience to help them. That person has to do something silly or embarrassing; everyone laughs and feels glad that the busker didn’t choose them.
Christchurch has a 10-day Buskers’ Festival every year at the end of January. This year there are about 50 individual performers or groups and about half of those are from New Zealand. Buskers from around the world enjoy performing in this festival so much that many of them come back the following year. Christchurch people and tourists enjoy the performances so much that they come every year also.
This festival started Thursday night last week and continues until next Sunday 29th January. Each day performances start about 11am with six different shows during the day in six different locations, then evening shows begin. Early evening shows are outdoors in the Arts Centre then later evening shows are indoors at other venues.
Children’s shows are in the Botanic Gardens during the day only. Evening shows are adults only.
Questions
What kind of personality does a busker need to be successful?
Why do people enjoy buskers?
What kind of street performance do you enjoy watching?