Seventh annual Kamloops Buskers Festival to take over Riverside Park this weekend

With a mix of circus acts, acrobatics, juggling, magic, comedy and more, Sweet says there will be something for everyone.

“Our performers travel the world entertaining audiences and we’re incredibly excited to welcome them to Kamloops,” he added. “Every year they leave people amazed, laughing and inspired, and this year’s lineup may be our strongest yet.”

Jonathan Goh began performing in his native Singapore at the age of 11, and his talents have brought him to Canada for the first time. He’ll be performing his show Planks and Ladder.

“There will be acrobatics, there’ll be juggling, there’ll be danger and the last part of the show is where I climb on top of the ladder with no support – nobody is going to support me,” Goh said. “I’m balancing it on my own.”

“For the whole show, I’m just risking my life for people’s entertainment.”

They’re also doing it for donations as while shows are free, people are encouraged to “pass the hat” following each performance to support the artists.

“Sometimes, I’m performing to people who may not be able to afford quality shows because tickets are expensive,” Goh added. “If you talk about Cirque du Soleil, it’s easily $100, so this keeps me going whenever I’m doing shows like this.”

New this year is Buskers After Hours scheduled for Friday night at the Riverside Park skating loop. Sweeet said it’ll feature a night market with local vendors, a DJ and mechanical bull as well as buskers.

“This is more geared towards toward mature audiences, a little bit less family-friendly,” Sweet said. “After seven years of growing this festival, we wanted to create something new for the adults.”

While the City of Kamloops remains blanketed in smoke from nearby wildfires, organizers remain optimistic that they’ll be able to reach their goal of 10,000 attendees this year.

“As long as people are showing up, there’s going to be a performance,” Sweet said. “If the smoke becomes really bad then we’ll have to make a decision on it or maybe we’ll just go cut down the number of performances, so instead of having two performances at once, we just do one.”

“There are a couple different options we can do, but everyone cross your fingers that the smoke goes away.”

For festival schedules, Buskers After Hours tickets, and other event updates, go here or check the Kamloops International Buskers Festival on social media.

by Victor Kaisar

Seventh annual Kamloops Buskers Festival to take over Riverside Park this weekend

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