Buskers delight uptown … those on right side of tracks
Some merchants walk fine line trying to balance books during acrobatics festival
There were two uptown Waterloos on the weekend.
On one side of Regina Street, the Waterloo Busker Carnival was in full swing, with appreciative crowds gasping and applauding at the daring of the performers. On the other side, uptown was a ghost town. Owners and managers of businesses that have been trapped for months by construction on King Street are trying to make the best of it.
They miss the customer traffic from the days when the festival was held right outside their doors.
Todd Scully, a manager at the Subway sandwich shop, said business is down 50 per cent over previous years.
Nearby, at the nearly empty Honey Bake Shop, owner Darlene Khounphachangsi agreed that it was “very, very busy” whenever the busker carnival was on. Luckily, a substantial part of her business is custom-ordered cakes.
“If we just relied on the foot traffic, it would be horrible,” she said.
In the fall, Khounphachangsi said her business will be moving to downtown Kitchener near King and Francis streets, where rents are much lower and there are plenty of potential customers from nearby tech companies. Other store owners were philosophical. “Once the streetscape gets sorted out, it’ll be fantastic,” said Michael Copland, manager of the Ontario Seed hardware store on King Street.
He and several other store managers said festivals are not especially lucrative anyway. People who are there for the festival may come in to look around. But they won’t necessarily buy, because they don’t want to carry the item around with them all day.
“Like other street festivals, sometimes you get
a bit of a bump in sales, sometimes you don’t,” he said.
But it exposes the people to the shops in Waterloo’s core at least, and they may return.
Copland said sales have been “very quiet” this summer, but that’s largely because of the weather. People don’t want to refinish their decks or tackle other renovation projects when it’s so hot, he said.
The festivals are better as a way of making people aware of the store and hoping they return later, he said.
On the other side of the tracks, the parking lot beside city hall was packed.
Crowds enjoyed the many food trucks, the brightly-lit midway and, of course, the buskers themselves, who cracked jokes while they performed seemingly-impossible acrobatics.
An Australian group named “FlameOz” offered fire dancing. The University of Waterloo cheerleading team was also on site to show off formidable formations and routines.
“I’ve broken over 15 world records — and 27 bones!” crowed “Pogo Fred,” a NewYork-based artist who bounces three metres into the air and performs gravity-defying stunts on a custom-made pogo stick.
Audience members braved overcast skies to come out with family and friends.
“I try to make this a ritual every year,” said Blair Waekens, of Chatham.
He comes to Waterloo to visit family and see the buskers.
As awe-inspiring as their stunts are, “it’s more the comedy that I love,” he said.