january-2010

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 2010, 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 2010 27