The Atlantic Buskers Festival Society

For the past 23 summers, Kim Hendrickson has scoured the world for the best street performers for the Halifax International Busker Festival. In those years, she has treated Halifax to the wildest, wackiest and sometimes weirdest entertainers who ever laid a hat on the pavement to collect hard-won change from passers-by.

“We scout the world (for the best talent),” says Hendrickson, president of Halifax-based ESP, which owns and produces the annual waterfront festival, now heading into its 24th year. “And the buskers scout us too. Every year we get hundreds of performers who want to come to Halifax, and we have the challenge of picking the best 30 acts,” says Hendrickson. “Our goal is to bring in something special to the festival every year – something that no one has seen in Canada.”

Over the years, several buyers have come to Halifax to scope out the potential of bringing the event back to their towns, from South Korea to Southern California. And Hendrickson has taken her considerable expertise to other markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Malta and England, to help them establish a busker festival of their own.

Since founding the Halifax International Busker Festival along with arts entrepreneur Dale Thomson, Hendrickson’s booked high-hopping extreme pogo riders, tattooed acrobats, fire eaters, chain saw jugglers and much more. “Every year is magical,” smiles Hendrickson, who still gets excited for the hunt for new talent.

Working closely with event manager Christina Edwards and their experienced team, Hendrickson has the festival trimmed like a smooth-running ship. (The pair also produce the annual Halifax Comedy Festival every April and organize the street performances for the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival.)

Regardless, Hendrickson knows unforeseen challenges never fail to appear during events of this magnitude “Every year something happens — a baby’s born in the middle of a crowd or some other unexpected event occurs.”

For eleven busy days through early August, the Halifax waterfront comes to life with throngs of rambling tourists and locals, drifting between the six stages along the length of the boardwalk. Organizers estimate as many as half a million people head for the waterfront over the run of the festival.

There’s no admission, no pressure to buy a program or spend money with the vendors who set up for the festival. But try to resist the urging of a hard-working busker, perhaps cradling flaming juggling batons or a roaring chainsaw, to toss a toonie or better into the hat, as a sign of appreciation for the world-class street theatre.

Hendrickson is careful to maintain the family-friendly aura of the event. All acts are finished by 10 p.m. to keep noise and pedestrian traffic manageable in the summer evenings. “We look for clean, intelligent humour that will attract and keep an audience of ages nine to 90.”

Since its humble beginnings in 1986, the Halifax International Busker Festival has grown into one of the marquee events of its kind in the world. “We’re the barometer for the rest of Canada and from Europe — they all watch for who we’re bringing.”

The annual budget now tops $400,000, which includes some travel support for the performers to come to Halifax. Policing and security for the event alone tops $25,000. Westjet has helped the festival defray some costs by providing in-kind support, and the Hotel Association of Nova Scotia is a key supporter for the festival, providing about $70,000 in room-nights for performers in 18 different hotels in the Halifax area.

As the festival has grown more polished over the past 24 years, the busking talent has kept up with shifting popular culture trends. Traditional buskers — jugglers, acrobats and comedy acts — are now sharing the bill with breakdancing troupes, fire acts and pavement artists.

In earlier years, Hendrickson would travel to Europe or Asia for talent showcases, enabling her to discover and book the hottest acts. Now much of that talent searching can be done online. With the global reputation of the Halifax International Busker Festival, the world comes looking for a place on one of the half dozen performance stages.

“The world is shrinking,” laughs Hendrickson, who regularly fields calls of interest from Australia and Europe. “These guys come to here to busk — the busking community knows Halifax as a destination.” So do shiploads of tourists who annually book hotel rooms in August to ensure a place for the festival.

Performers rotate through the six waterfront stages, from Historic Properties to Sackville Landing, ensuring everyone gets equal opportunity at every performance spot. However, the fire acts tend to get the bigger stages for the coveted nighttime slot, ensuring the best — and safest —setting for their spectacular eye-popping pyrotechnics.

Contributing to the success of the event is the legion of volunteers who arrive every August to help out where they’re needed. Some even schedule their holidays around the festival, and spend the 11 days happily pitching into a variety of assigned jobs — from ferrying performers and setting up stages to picking up garbage.

After months of organizing leading up to each festival and 11 crazy days of orchestrating this huge event, Hendrickson is always relieved and exhausted when the final show is done. But there’s little downtime, she says. “After the festival is over, people ask me what are I’m going to do next,” says Hendrickson. “Start over… tomorrow.”