Tonight we went to check out Buskerfest in the St.Lawrence Market neighbourhood in Toronto. There are about 5 different buskers doing shows every hour covering everything from singing to clowns to fire throwing. Most are very entertaining but you have to be there very early or be very tall to see anything. As you can see from the title of my blog I'm not the tallest person out there. If you aren't able to sit on your parents shoulders then forget seeing most of the entertainment. The other issue is the actual 'busking' and asking for money from the crowd.
Since these entertainers aren't paid by the event, they rely on donations after they preform. Several of the shows we watched were very pushy when asking for money and spent a lot of their show talking about it. It kind of ruined the mood, but I guess that is what busking is all about.
There were two parts of the event that really stood out for me. The food and the crazy amount of children on their parents shoulders. I found out that the best view in the house was definitely on someone's shoulders. I think the event organizers should consider building some sort of staging area for them to stand on so they are visible to more than one row of people. I know it would ruin the whole 'street busking' feel but I think once you have corporate sponsors you should consider making the festival a little more friendly for the public. The choices for food were great. Montreal smoked meat sandwiches, gyros, hot dogs, thai food, crepes, fajitas, poutine, corn on the cob, funnel cake and much more. It was like the CNE but without the overpriced cover charge.
More info:
http://www.torontobuskerfest.com/
