2008 Newburyport Buskers Festival, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1

August 26, 2008

When: Sunday, August 31 and Monday, September 1, 11:00am - 5:00pm
Where: Downtown Newburyport and Market Square

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend and you want to be outdoors in Newburyport, then check out the 2008 Newburyport Buskers Festival, sponsored by the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The two-day festival takes place on Sunday, August 31 and Monday, September 1 in Market Square and downtown Newburyport from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm.

What is a busker and what is busking? A good question. The short answer is “street performers.”

Wikipedia defines “busking” as follows: “Busking is the practice of performing in public places for tips and gratuities. People engaging in this practice are called buskers. Busking performances can be just about anything that people find entertaining. Buskers may do: acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon modelling, card tricks, clowning, comedy, contortions & escapes, dance, fire eating, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime and a mime variation where the artist performs as a living statue, musical performance, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or recite poetry or prose as a bard, street art (sketching and painting, etc.), street theatre, sword swallowing, or even present a flea circus.”

And we have seen most of these types of performances at the annual Newburyport Buskers Festival. Not sure about the snake charmer and actual flea circus events, but most of the others we have seen performed in Newburyport.

Newburyport’s Buskers Festival celebrates the American busking tradition. It is one of the only Buskers Festivals in the United States. Other great festivals are located in Canada, and international festivals in Italy, Singapore and New Zealand.

Visit downtown Newburyport this Labor Day weekend and be entertained by musicians, clowns, jugglers, magicians and performers of all stripes! A list of buskers appearing at this year’s Newburyport Buskers Festival is posted on the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce & Industry website.

Here is a list of some famous groups and celebrities that started their careers as busters: