Buskers in Adelaide

Rundle Mall is the central shopping street in Adelaide. For many years now it has been closed to vehicular traffic, and paved as a pedestrian mall. People are allowed to busk in the mall, but must buy a busking permit. About twenty years ago, my daughter was involved in a circus for children (Cirkids) and wanted to travel to Victoria for a one week course with the Flying Fruit Flies. She bought a busker's permit for 50 cents a day, and busked for several weeks of her holidays and earned a nice tidy sum of a few hundred dollars by riding her unicycle and juggling. Since then they have put the price up to $5 a day, but the buskers have to move every 30 minutes. The idea of that is that if they are terrible, no one shopkeeper has to tolerate a bad, on-going performance.

The Fringe Festival that is currently on from 26th February to 14th March, intersected by Womadelaide from 5th to 8th March, attracts international performing artists. This gives locals (especially those of us who work in the Mall) a real treat with the standard of busking rocketing sky high, so much so that I leave the office with a fist-full of dollars to spread around. Today I took my trusty camera to lunch with me to spot some talent.

This fellow was too busy to talk to me, but was happy to take my donation for a short photo session. He was from Switzerland, and thought he would move on to Sydney and Melbourne when the festival was over, but said that so far he had enjoyed the opening parade and fireworks. As you can hear, his music is very melodious.

From Queensland, Australia, I discovered this amazing one-man-band. His CD's were selling like hotcakes and I really wanted to get one, but my fistful of coins wasn't going to stretch quite that far! Have a look at the video and see for yourself the talent that he blessed my lunch hour with!

Many circuses have turned up in town - most of them are animal free zones which makes it more demanding for the performers. These young performers are hoping for a circus career. In Victoria, it is possible to undertake university study in circus performing.

This busker was just setting up when I passed by, and yet a crowd had begun to gather. His act was to hide something under three cups and have the audience guess which cup it was under. Ten minutes later when I came back to capture the action, the crowd was so large that I couldn't even see him through the ten-deep crowd, let alone video the action. Next time, I'll take a front row and wait patiently!

Festival time in Adelaide is fantastic! If you have ever thought you'd like to come to Australia, festival time in Adelaide is great! The festival is a bi-annual event, so plan to be part of it in 2012! Book today, plan your holiday tomorrow. We showcase Australia as a lively, happening, best place on earth!

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