The Busker's Festival | Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia

"Not all those who wander are lost."

Fine weather, good friends,
great food from undiscovered places,
great experience from unexpected things,
such are the past weekend's adventures.

This past weekend, hubby and I together with some friends wandered around the Halifax Harbourfront  for the annual International Busker's Festival.  Twenty-ninth year festival for the city, first for me.  I did not know what to expect.  Neither did I think of checking online for details {Wait, you could do that? :D.  Well, didn't want to spoil any surprise now, did we?}  A great advantage of having no great expectations is being surprised.  I was completely blown out of the water.

The Busker's Festival was held at the Harbourfront.  The ocean was a lovely backdrop for some of the performers.  The skies were bright and cloudless.

There was a young man playing the guitar in a very unconventional way.  He managed to produce various sounds and harmonizing notes by using only one guitar.  Then there was a puppet master, like Gepetto and his Pinocchio. How about a man playing enchanting, whimsical music using wine glasses?  It started out great...

Then, there were men doing high jumps and back flips on a thin plank of wood.  Wooa!  "Thank you for your support,"  one of the performers were announcing, "it is great to see you enjoying yourselves as the three of us endanger my life."   Humor was an important part of all the buskers' performances.

Esmeralda dela Rosa (Izza Flambe)

I did not care too much about the Izza Fambe act.  "I am Esmeralda dela Rosa from the Seven Seas.  Please congratulate me for I finally found a man without disease."  It started out cute, then I think she just played on that theme a little too much, asking men volunteers from the audience to do funny tricks with her.  The crowd seemed impressed though.

The family act, Mat Velvet & Charlie Show,  was so enjoyable.  Their jokes were funny and the stunts and tricks were amazing.  The youngest daughter, 6 years old, performed an aerial dance in silk curtains. We cheered for her all the way.  But the father, ever so proud, wants the crowd to cheer a little louder. With one arm holding his daughter proud, the other waving up and down enthusing the crowd in funny teasing voice: "Oh come on, this is a six year old girl doing what none of you can do."  It worked, we cheered even louder.

I was specially impressed by the English Gents who performed hand balancing acts... while they drink tea!  Something about not breaking the tea cups tickled my bones.  On another balancing act, one performer raised his partner up ever so gracefully until he was settled on his back shoulders.  Then he let go of their arms carefully until the one on top was resting just on his shoulders.  Wow!  They were really strong, they made the tricks look so easy although no one would deny it is a really hard thing to do.  They also pleased the crowd by, oh well, hilariously baring near-all.

The most daring of all was Aerial Manx, the sword swallowing contortionist.  He is a reigning Guinness World Book of Records title holder for the one who does the most back-flips with a sword on his throat.  I've only seen performances like this on t.v.  That is scary enough... seeing it done in person was nerve-wracking but full of thrill and suspense.  His carefully chosen music was enough to make my little hairs stand.  "Oh come on!!!" He says often as the audience go silent while we watched him play with fire.  "You can't do that!  Show me some love!"  Not that I don't want to cheer, I am seriously rooting for him.  Maybe I'm just praying for his safety or just plainly dumbfounded, simply speechless.  Whenever I regain my breath, I would give a loud "yay!" and clap really hard.  If only I could whistle.  After having a few of the crowd test out his sword, he swallowed it effortlessly then jumped three back flips in a fast succession.  How awesome was that?  Fake sword maybe?  Hmmm...

We thought we'd be staying at the harbourfront only until early afternoon and be able to do many others things.
But I got to see performances and stunts I thought I would never see in real life.  We ended up sticking around, moving from one show to the next.  Finally, we watched the all-star performance at 10 p.m.  where the street performers showed their highlights for the sake of charity: Feed Nova Scotia.  These street show artists are from distant parts of the world, traveling to perform.  I'm glad that we traveled the 2.5 hours to meet them. 



I hope you enjoyed this post today.  I tell you though, any photo nor video is nothing compared to seeing them live.  Are there events of this sort where you live?  Would you travel to see one?

Just in case you missed these post:

International Busker's Festival

The Wind Farms, Amherst NS

Halifax Public Gardens

Chocolate Lake, Armdale

Public Gardens

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