Mulletman launches new buskers festival
Christchurch performer Nathan Bonner, also known as Mulletman, has launched a new buskers festival that will run at the same time as its larger Bread & Circus rival.
Bonner’s festival, which is called Salty Buskers Club, will feature six buskers performing in Akaroa today, Birdlings Flat tomorrow, and New Brighton on Saturday and Sunday.
The Akaroa event will also include an evening show starring all the performers.
Bonner said he established the new event because he missed the New Brighton busking pitch and the busker evening shows that had been dropped since the Bread & Circus – World Buskers Festival was revamped in 2018.
‘‘In New Brighton, there is a feeling that they have been left behind a bit and it is not just related to the festival but the quakes as well,’’ he said.
‘‘They are grateful that something is going on, and they have that activity back.’’
He said he particularly missed the evening shows at the World Buskers Festival that used to be held in the north quad of the Christchurch Arts
Centre.
‘‘I really want those night shows back. You could hear a pin drop and the crowds were huge and everything was electric. I miss those shows.
‘‘It was a great way for the public to see six or seven acts in a short space of time.’’
He said there was ‘‘no ill feeling’’ with Bread & Circus organisers, who were told about the new festival in advance.
‘‘I have kept in contact with the Bread & Circus organisers through the year, and we have agreed that we are happy to work together or independently.’’
Bread & Circus director Scott Maidment said he welcomed the new festival.
‘‘I am always of the opinion that festivals feed off each other. The more the merrier.
‘‘More festivals at this time of year gives people even more of a reason to come to town.’’
He said the evening busker shows had been dropped from the revamped festival to avoid audiences paying for a ticket for an evening show but also being asked to contribute to the hat at the end.
‘‘Buskers really loved those nighttime shows, but it was a decision to keep it pure and do busking in the day and ticketed shows at night.’’
He also welcomed the fact the new festival was being held in New Brighton and Akaroa.
‘‘I would love to do shows further afield, but we haven’t got enough money to do that at the moment.’’
Maidment said buskers were pulling good crowds on their return to the streets of central Christchurch yesterday after two days off.
The Bread & Circus festival runs until January 31 with busking pitches on Plymouth Lane off Cashel Mall, in front of the Bridge of Remembrance and on the corner of Worcester Blvd and Oxford Tce.
The Salty Buskers Club festival was funded by contributions from local businesses including Base Pizza, Beach House community hub in New Brighton and marketing agency Friday Creative.