busker \BUS-kur\, noun: A person who performs an art in public places for donations of money.
Also referred to as street performers, traveling musicians, street entertainers, circle acts, street musicians, street theater, sidewalk, street and subway musicians, minstrels and bards.
Buskers are that rare breed of street entertainers in search of the best place or "pitch" to perform their artistic endeavor. Buskers can be dancers, mimes, artists, clowns, magicians, musicians, puppeteers, jugglers, acrobats, tumblers, story-tellers, and living statues. They can be sword swallowers, balloonists, fortune tellers, contortionists, escape artists, rope walkers, fire eaters, and just plain weird.
A busker's stage can be anywhere from fairs and festivals to trains and cablecars. Depending on their motivation, these street performers sometime travel the globe with their impromptu acts reaching far-away lands and peoples with their unique form of entertainment. In some cultures, they are considered a living curiosity. With a great street stage or "pitch", buskers can easily amass huge audiences with thousands of people entertained.
In 2010, Busker Central celebrates it's fifth year elevating public consciousness by educating internet users what it means to be a real busker. Considering the term itself, the United States is one of the few countries that does not employ the word "busker". Instead, "street performer" is used along side with all sorts of mis-conceptions alluding to homelessness, criminal, alcoholic, and transient behavior.
One difference between "indoor" performers and "street" performers is that the latter usually takes place with the busker actively soliciting a tip for their unpaid performance. While it has a vast Irish and German musical influence, the United States only has a few major cities directly involved promoting street performing. Strangely, busking the USA is often illegal. Police usually notify buskers of infringements by "moving them on", fines, or confiscating equipment. They can also bring charges against buskers for begging, blocking the sidewalk, disturbing the peace, panhandling, and, if not checked-in someplace, even vagrancy! Fortunately, in most nations, the busker is a friendly, familiar sight performing their art, entertaining young and old, and making a livihood just as they have done for many hundreds of years.
Jugglers on unicycles defy gravity by keeping several balls in the air at once. Street musicians feverishly belt out their songs for all to hear. A Mime may throughly captivate a whole city block with antics without saying a single word. One street performer is known for entertaining with a 10 foot pole. A Human Statue stands motionless for hours. Still another busker roller-skates down the boardwalk wearing a turbin and playing guitar.
A handicapped artist is painting with his feet in Lisbon while another busker is busy doing headstands on broken shards of glass in Barcelona. Snake charmers still perform their shows in the streets of New Delhi, fireblowers are still belching smoke in Istanbul, and the hurdy gurdy man is still cranking out the tunes in Vienna.
One strange type of busker is a one-man band usually made up of strings, drums, cymbals, horns, bells, and whistles. Although rare in the Americas, one-man-bands are much more prevalent in England, Europe, Canada, and Australia often traveling between.
Some buskers perform all day, everyday. Some are totally unique in their performance whose style is not found anywhere else. Some buskers even compete in huge busker festivals celebrating excellence in street performing.
Right now, all over the world, buskers are busy presenting their show living a life of wonder outside the office cube and down the carefree highway. They are actively presenting their art totally "live".
Street-corner performers are usually highly skilled in their craft by several years. Reliant on these artistic skills, buskers can often be found voyaging to distant lands performing along the way. Make no mistake about it. This is their nature doing what the real busker loves - traveling, performing, passing-the-hat, and counting - forever lost in the search...of that elusive perfect pitch.
Busker Central is a busker and street performer reference site and a non-profit co-operative promoting busking around the globe.
Made by and for street performers, the Busker Central photo gallery displays one of the largest amounts of art and pictures.
The Busker Central video gallery hosts hundreds of street performers in reference videos freely available to download for your educational & viewing pleasure.
The convenient Video-of-the-Month highlights everything from International Busker Festivals to individual and group presentations and even interviews and social commentary.
Each month, the Busker Central News Blog keeps you up-to-date with interesting stories, legal issues, and events on busking and street performing from around the world.
You will need to join Busker Central to watch videos and read our special Insights and How to's on busking and street performing. Busker Central is 100% spam-free!
Street performers new and old can benefit from the worldwide busker videos, photos, songs, comics, and more!
Busker Central
2010
