(LONDON) An article in The Guardian examines where the streets have no change - and how buskers are surviving in cashless times.A recent hot topic, the article asks is it time performers turned to contactless readers? After all, dropping coins in a hat is increasingly, well, old hat.

Speaking of hats, they're down in London. Again, society is changing. Spending our money is much more convenient nowadays using plastic rather than carrying around coins and notes. Americans have gone plastic for decades but now it's becoming more of a world-wide trend.

For buskers, touchless card readers are now "the thing" since people are carrying around a lot less cash. With plastic, even if you get robbed right there on the street in broad daylight, the poor crook doesn't have access to your PIN number(s)....

[ Continued ]

Move over Penélope and Scarlett - a struggling musician-turned-diva is the real feelgood story behind Woody Allen's new movie.

When British cinemagoers flock to Woody Allen's latest film Vicky Cristina Barcelona this week, they are likely to have been drawn by the triple attraction of Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem, who star in the tale of a love triangle conducted in one of Europe's most charismatic cities. But in Catalonia the true hero of the film is an Italian busker who has never been anywhere near the studios of Hollywood.

The film has already garnered a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, but last week a less publicised award - a Catalan film festival award for best original music - went to Giulia Tellarini, whose "Barcelona" forms the opening soundtrack to the film and has already been adopted by the city's tourist board.

Tellarini and her band a...

[ Continued ]

(LAWRENCE, KANSAS) It's hard to believe the Lawrence Busker Festival is celebrating it's tenth year keeping Lawrence weird. The festival will host over 50 difference acts on it's five downtown pitches. Included are fire displays, pogo stick acrobatics, break dancers, aerial artists, rubber chicken tricks, musicians and much more.The Great Escape will kick off the festivities where an escape artist will replicate Harry Houdini's feat of escaping from a strait jacket while hanging upside down two stories above the crowd. Other events include an attempt to to set the Guinness World Record for the most people attempting a water bottle flip. And it gets even better.

Street performers will soon become a regular sight in Lawrence. Thanks to a $5,000 City Hall grant, the city's Community Arts Grant Competition's...

[ Continued ]

Hi
Just introduce myself, my name is Tim and I run group of fire performers called Juggling Inferno.

Hi folks,

My name's Steven Lockmoore, I'm a musical busker from Leeds in the north of England.

A trailer for a film a couple of guys made about me and the busking scene in Leeds just went online yesterday. I'd love it if you could take a look and, if you like what you see, share it around with your friends. It's called Busking Turf Wars!

I'd love for the film to be seen around the world, because it shares a topic that is very close to all of our hearts: busking!

Plus, it's really fun to watch!

You can see the trailer over at the film's Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/BuskingTurfWars

I hope you enjoy!

Steven Lockmoore (@busker_steve)