Side trip: Busker Festival

Last weekend the Buskers came through town for the local festival.  From what I can tell, the Buskers are a group of performers who go traveling around the United States all summer long...it's not something that is original to my area. The advertising on the local site really gives a good flavor for what you will see if you attend:  "Welcome to a world where freaks, geeks, oddities, artists and out of the box entertainers run wild."

There were a couple dozen street performers with a variety of talents - an amazing atmosphere.  It was all very reminiscent of old traveling carnival acts doing performances on stage areas.  In between the stages were other "living statues" - people who could really hold so still it was incredible and would switch positions every time someone put a tip in their hat - as well as musicians and smaller acts. The streets downtown were blocked off for the festival and schedules were available all over the place so we could pick what we wanted to go see.  Unicycle routine not your thing?  Go to the fire eater! 

Both of the kids went with me and we had dinner downtown then walked around to the stages to see what we could find.  

The fire eater did little magic tricks between flame offs to let his tongue cool down.  He took audience volunteers and pointed me out to come forward and I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide.  Sure, I like to be the center of attention, but not like that.  I shook my head no and he persisted so I went, but I wasn't a very good assistant.  I wanted to bolt the whole time and I'm sure it showed.  When I was released and got back to my spot, Ben pulled me aside and whispered, "good job, mom".  That made me feel a little bit crappy for not being a better assistant.  Anyway, on to the strong woman!

 

We loved her.  She was definitely strong but she was also an actress and put on a great performance.

And THEN, as if the evening wasn't amazing enough, we saw my sister-in-law to be.  It was great to just run into each other that way and do a quick catch up.  And yes, I totally noticed she was wearing her engagement ring.

A unicycle act and some living statues later, it was getting dark (did I mention it was about 95 degrees out?) and we decided to call it an evening.  Next year, we are going to plan out our route a little bit better and try to get to more of the shows.  If Buskers are coming to your area next summer, don't miss the opportunity to check out the performances!