GO GUIDE WORLD BUSKER FESTIVAL 26 JANUARY <strong>2010</strong> CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: A hula hoop workshop for kids; living statue The Stewardess; the Acrobuffos offer a smorgasbord of talents OPPOSITE: Jodi Wright
The As the 17th World Buskers Festival descends upon Christchurch, we fi nd out what makes the event a crowd favourite time and again WORDS WENDY DUNLOP city of Christchurch can justifi ably claim to be the busker capital of Australasia and a magnet to street performers from all over the world. For 17 years, the World Buskers Festival has lured visitors and residents to city streets every January to be entertained by the wild, the wacky, the whimsical and occasionally, the wicked. After researching busker festivals in the USA and Canada, festival director Jodi Wright established the event in 1993. Since then she has sourced its sponsors, gathered its performers and guided its development to award-winning status in 2009. Casting aside a reputation for conservative tastes, Christchurch residents have consistently voted the World Buskers Festival as their favourite event. Entertaining 300,000 people during the 10-day/11-night extravaganza with 500 performances at 14 different venues, the festival is fun, free and a licence to laugh. It’s also now among the top fi ve in the world, attracting 400 applications internationally. Securing an invitation is considered a coup by performers. Like a busker bounty hunter, Wright scours the world to sign the best jugglers, contortionists, aerialists, acrobats, clowns, comics, impressionists, sideshow artists and living statues. “I want timing, skill, ability and the unusual, plus variety and humour that will translate across different ages and cultures,” Wright says. Performers for the event, which runs from 21–31 January, hail from Argentina, Japan, USA, Canada, UK, Australia and the Netherlands, as well as home-grown acts by some of New Zealand’s fi nest and funniest. “Every year I get a bit nervous about how I’m going to pull together a line-up that’s as good if not better than the previous year,” Wright admits. Because Christchurch audiences still like to see their favourite performers but also want to be introduced to new talent, a musical venue has been introduced this year to broaden the depth and diversity of the festival. In <strong>2010</strong>, Mario Queen of the Circus (aka Clarke McFarlane), returns from the USA to wow audiences again. With a performance described by the New York Times as “eccentric humour and playful bawdiness,” the world’s biggest Queen fan has combined virtuoso juggling to the accompaniment of “Another One Bites the Dust”. New acts include several award-winning artists previously with Cirque du Soleil and the Big Apple Circus. The USA’s Barry Lubin brings his lovable Jewish alter ego, “Grandma” to Christchurch. A graduate of Clown College with a long-term circus career, his exquisite timing and miming is so much more than a man in a red dress and curly grey hair. “It’s about doing the unexpected,” he says. The Acrobuffos are also newcomers to Christchurch. Self-described “global laughmakers, street players and knockabout philosophers”, they present a smorgasbord of juggling, mask playing and a volatile brand of theatre entitled “Waterbombs” — hardly surprising given that Acrobuffos Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone met while teaching circus performance in Afghanistan. Canada’s Duo Hoops are characterised by one enormous hula hoop, two eccentric personalities and absurd humour. While their signature item is the hula hoop which the pair swivels in unison, multiple hoops of all sizes are used to mesmerise audiences of all ages. As the “Strongest Lady Alive”, Australia’s Betty Brawn delivers her incredible feats of strength with style and grace. In her fi nest moment, she hoists two grown men simultaneously and spins them in her version of the “Human Carousel”. The World Buskers Festival will also host The Stewardess from the Netherlands. Bright orange in appearance, she’s the creation of Tukkers Connexion and was named World Champion Living Statue at the 2009 World Statues Event in the Netherlands. GO GUIDE WORLD BUSKER BUSKERS FESTIVAL JANUARY <strong>2010</strong> 27
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