The World Buskers Festival is a 10-day international festival of street performers that has been held annually since 1993 at the end of January in Christchurch, New Zealand.
"Busker" is originally the English term for street musicians, but in the context of the festival, it encompasses all areas of street art and street theater, such as juggling, acrobatics, clowning, magic, or stand-up comedy.
During the festival, hundreds of free events by street performers from around the world are held on various stages and squares throughout the city. Performances take place in the city centre, especially in Cathedral Square, Victoria Square the Arts Centre, and City Mall. All performers are paid solely from voluntary donations by their audience following each performance. Some clubs and the Arts Centre host evening events that require a mandatory donation as admission. These events are also restricted to adult visitors due to the often risqué nature of the presented comedy and shows.
At the 2009 Buskers Festival, officially 47 artists from eight nations gave over 400 performances, but every year numerous street performers not included in the official festival programme also perform simultaneously. Five of the New Zealand participants were nominated for the New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards.
Since the festival takes place without admission fees throughout the city centre, it is difficult to determine the exact number of visitors. According to a study by the Christchurch City Council, the festival attracted approximately 33,000 visitors in 2007, of whom 26,100 were primarily in Christchurch because of the festival. Over 250,000 people perceived the performances as part of daily life in Christchurch. 11.6% of all out-of-town visitors to the city cited the WBF as the main reason for their stay. In 2011, the city estimated approximately NZ$3 million in generated revenue from the festival. No data were collected for 2012 as the festival did not take place in the city centre following the Canterbury earthquakes. [1]
According to the Lonely Planet travel guide, the WBF is one of the four most prominent festivals in New Zealand. [2]
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region. It is the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed.
Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers. Buskers is not a term generally used in American English.
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island and the second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has a population of 396,200 and is located in the Canterbury Region, near the centre of the east coast of the South Island, east of the Canterbury Plains. It is located near the southern end of Pegasus Bay, and is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean and to the south by the ancient volcanic complex of the Banks Peninsula. The Avon River (Ōtākoro) winds through the centre of the city, with a large urban park along its banks. With the exception of the Port Hills, it is a relatively flat city, on an average around 20 m (66 ft) above sea level. Christchurch has a reputation for being an English city, with its architectural identity and nickname the 'Garden City' due to similarities with garden cities in England. Christchurch has a temperate oceanic climate with regular moderate rainfall.
Northwest Folklife is an independent 501(c)(3) arts organization that celebrates the multigenerational arts, cultures, and traditions of a global Pacific Northwest.
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The Christchurch Town Hall, since 2007 formally known as the Christchurch Town Hall of the Performing Arts, opened in 1972, is Christchurch, New Zealand's premier performing arts centre. It is located in the central city on the banks of the Avon River overlooking Victoria Square, opposite the former location of the demolished Christchurch Convention Centre. Due to significant damage sustained during the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, it was closed until 2019. Council staff initially recommended demolition of all but the main auditorium, but at a meeting in November 2012, councillors voted to rebuild the entire hall. In 2020, the town hall was registered as a Category I heritage building.
Regina, Saskatchewan has a rich cultural life in music, theatre and dance, amply supported by the substantial fine arts constituency at the University of Regina, which has a large fine arts department including faculties of music and theatre. At various times this has attracted notable artistic talent: Donald M. Kendrick and Joe Fafard have been particular stars.
The Cuba Street Carnival was a street parade and creative celebration in Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand that was intermittently held from the 1980s and saw crowds of 10,000–20,000 people. It stopped in 2009 due to a lack of funding, and was revived in 2015 under the name Cubadupa.
A buskers festival is any festival in which street-shows or street-performers of music, theater, dance, juggling, etc., play a prominent role.
Sam Wills is a New Zealand prop comic, busker, clown, and mime artist residing in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. He performs under the name The Boy With Tape On His Face and, more recently, as Tape Face. He was also half of the two-person act Spitroast and sometimes performed under his own name, Sam Wills. He has been featured in the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, the World Buskers Festival, and was a finalist on Season 11 of America's Got Talent.
The Winchester Hat Fair is the UK's longest running festival of street theatre, comedy, and music which is held in Winchester, United Kingdom, always during the first weekend in July.
f*INK Weekly Entertainment Guide was a free weekly guide owned by Martin Kean and Caroline McCaw. It was published each Wednesday from February to December, from 1996-2009 in Dunedin, New Zealand. The aim of the guide was to provide free information about events to the local community using cheap one-colour printing but with a distinctive design style. Part of f*INK's mission was support of and collaboration with artist networks, bands and musicians, including those that grew out of the Dunedin sound.
The Civic was a building in Manchester Street, central Christchurch, that was erected in 1900 and demolished in 2011. It was first used as an exhibition hall, then as a cinema, and then a theatre, before being gutted by fire in 1917. The northern part of the building was purchased by Christchurch City Council (CCC) and opened as the civic office in 1924, and served this purpose until 1980. After that it had several uses, including a restaurant, bar and live music venue. The building was heavily damaged in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and was demolished.
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Megan Mary Wraight was a New Zealand landscape architect who had considerable influence on the design of public spaces. She was the founding principal of Wraight + Associates Limited, which has completed a wide variety of large-scale urban projects throughout New Zealand, including waterfront redevelopments, educational facilities, transport facilities and urban-renewal projects.
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