{"id":110612,"date":"2022-08-11T14:39:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T18:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=110612"},"modified":"2022-08-12T15:19:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T19:19:37","slug":"first-ever-sackville-busker-festival-kicks-off-tonight-for-an-event-filled-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/first-ever-sackville-busker-festival-kicks-off-tonight-for-an-event-filled-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"First ever Sackville Busker Festival kicks off tonight for an event-filled weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s an action-packed weekend coming up in Sackville.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LiveBaitTheatre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Live Bait New Works Festival<\/a> launched Wednesday and runs until August 15, with plays, readings, a book launch, and a concert in collaboration with the newly revived <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Tbsblues\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tantramar Blues Society<\/a>. The Tantramar Heritage Trust and the Town of Sackville have put together<a href=\"http:\/\/tantramarheritage.ca\/yorkshire250\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> a roster of activities<\/a> to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Yorkshire Settlers in the region, promising to \u201cexplore the impacts, both good and bad\u201d of the settlement. And to top it all off, there will be extra activity downtown as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sackvillebuskerfest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first Sackville Busker Festival<\/a> takes over Bridge Street between Main and Lorne, with performances starting Thursday evening and happening throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Wendy Epworth is owner of Mel\u2019s Tea Room and vice president of the downtown Sackville Business Improvement Area (BIA), which is spearheading the festival with some help from ACOA\u2019s Rediscover Main Streets initiative. CHMA sat down with Epworth on Wednesday to hear more about the Buskers Festival and how it came to be.<\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-110612-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Wendy-Epworth-buskers-Aug-10-2022-edit.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Wendy-Epworth-buskers-Aug-10-2022-edit.mp3\">https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Wendy-Epworth-buskers-Aug-10-2022-edit.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Epworth says when word of funding for new events and festivals to help re-animate downtowns came down the line, she thought immediately of the Halifax International Buskers Festival. \u201cIt\u2019s a great, longstanding festival, and I\u2019ve enjoyed it,\u201d says Epworth. So she reached out to see if something of a smaller scale could work in Sackville. \u201cThey sent me information about what a little festival would look like here,\u201d says Epworth, and she put together a proposal for ACOA in the spring. Then late last month, the approval came down, and Epworth has been srambling since to make the first ever Sackville Busker Festival a reality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit crazy,\u201d admits Epworth, but performers arrived on Wednesday and a performance schedule will kick off Thursday evening on Bridge Street.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s five different buskers booked to perform throughout the weekend, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hula Hoop Queen Lisa Lottie<\/li>\n<li>Magician Extraordinaire Michael James<\/li>\n<li>Rock n\u2019 Roll Circus Performer Steve Goodtime<\/li>\n<li>Mystery Entertainer Lukas Stark, and<\/li>\n<li>King of Living Statues Silver Elvis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to work with with Premiere Entertainment Group,\u201d says Epworth. \u201cWe\u2019re getting some world class, internationally-known performers, so it should it should be some exciting days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Buskers Fest is also partnering with the town and Mount Allison to expand what\u2019s on offer. \u201cBecause the street is going to be closed for the whole time, the town has worked to bring some other events and concerts for the mornings of Friday, Saturday and Sunday,\u201d says Epworth. Kids\u2019 entertainers Razzmatazz will perform Friday morning, and on Saturday students in the <a href=\"https:\/\/mta.ca\/current-students\/community-supports\/international-students\/massie-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MASSIE program<\/a> at Mount Allison will host a mini Japanese Summer Festival. Then on Sunday morning, a local Latin band, Latinacion, will perform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also are bringing in vendors, similar to some of the vendors that you might have seen for the moonlight madness events,\u201d says Epworth. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of fun\u2026 There\u2019s going to be lots of different activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Epworth says organizers considered a tent for the festival, but are now counting on weather forecasts staying clear and not too hot. They are also counting on spectators embracing the busking tradition of passing the hat at the end of performances.<\/p>\n<p>Though the festival is centrally organized, says Epworth, \u201cthe tips that performers get at the end of their performances are how they make their living.\u201d She\u2019s hoping that anyone new to busking won\u2019t be offended at the passing of the hat. \u201cIt\u2019s important that these guys are compensated or well paid for their talents, because they do amazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though this is the first year and the festival has come together on a short timeline, Epworth is hopeful that it might be a recurring event. \u201cWe\u2019ll be watching for how well it is received, and things that could be improved in a subsequent event,\u201d says Epworth. \u201cDepending on how it goes I think it would be a great thing to happen every year in Sackville.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the most up to date information on the Sackville Busker Festival, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sackvillebuskerfest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">check their Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s an action-packed weekend coming up in Sackville. The Live Bait New Works Festival launched Wednesday and runs until August 15, with plays, readings, a book launch, and a concert in collaboration with the newly revived Tantramar Blues Society. The Tantramar Heritage Trust and the Town of Sackville have put together a roster of activities&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":110616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57,219],"tags":[17676,14190,17674,3619,4917,17675],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110612"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110782,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110612\/revisions\/110782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110612"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=110612"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=110612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}