TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
Buskers from around the world join local talent in bringing an entertaining vibe to the city centre
Spanish circus performer Eddy Eighty will be hitting the city streets along with 20 other acts for the Downtown Victoria Buskers Festival, which runs July 11 to 16 at locations throughout the downtown core. Story,
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, William Shakespeare wrote.
We’re about to find out if that also applies to festivals
Next week, the Downtown Victoria Buskers Festival kicks off. If the festival’s name doesn’t ring a bell, you might be thinking of the 10-day Victoria International Buskers Festival, which ended its five-year run last summer.
Kerry Milton, general manager of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, says locals and tourists alike will find that the association’s new, smaller-scale replacement is just as sweet as the old one.
“It’s a bit different because it goes with the association’s mandate, to bring people downtown to explore our shops and restaurants,” Milton said.
One of the key changes visitors can expect, she said, is the introduction of several “pitch stop” pop-up locations in front of downtown stores and restaurants.
Twenty acts, from Victoria to as far afield as Spain, Australia and Israel, will rotate through 207 time slots during the six-day community festival.
The association is presenting the festival in partnership with Tourism Victoria, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority and the Hotel Association of Greater Victoria.
Extreme skateboarding, firejuggling, a spectacular moderndance parody, clowning and stunts are just a few of the street spectacles passersby can expect.
Highlights include Eddy Eighty, a charismatic Spanish circus performer; Peter Rabbit, a Toronto-based busker who has toured with Kanye West and appeared in Rihanna’s What’s My
Name? video; wacky contortionist and stuntman Billions Cobra; and Fireguy, who describes his firejuggling routines on motorized skateboards as “skatertainment.”
Other promising participants include Beat the Streets, an ensemble of Australian street entertainers whose fusion of tap dancing, break dancing and more has landed them gigs with musicians such as Taylor Swift; and Israel’s Duo Looky, an acrobatic comedy show with a circus feel, described as being about “a bartender and a waitress with a mobile bar, dreaming of fame in the circus world.”
After extensive research, and listening to local business people, the DVBA sought to encourage festival-watchers to spread out beyond the main festival site at Ship Point, Milton said.
Acts in the previous festival were concentrated at Ship Point, which didn’t work for some of the Government Street merchants, she said.
“Others felt left out because there’s this giant festival going on and no reason for people to be drawn up Douglas Street.”
The new downtown pitch stops include the Bay Centre, Market Square, Bastion Square, Victoria Public Market, Millie’s Lane (beside Cineplex Odeon on Yates Street), and CRD Square (adjacent to Centennial Square).
“Our mandate isn’t just about the festival,” Milton said. “It’s actually to make downtown vibrant, to get people shopping and playing and eating and drinking downtown.”
The association’s research into what makes international festivals successful also indicated that a timespan of four to six days was ideal, Milton added.
Festival organizers pledged to mount a “low-impact” festival, with recycling and refill stations for water bottles, and bike parking at the Ship Point pitch stop.
Visitors will also be invited to jump on a bicycle-powered sound system in Market Square to help create green power.
“We want to make it an ecofriendly event as much as possible, to keep it green,” she said. “Events are consumers and we are trying to mitigate that.”