Lewiston, ME, kicked off a successful busking festival in 2025. And in Lawrence, KS, and Burlington, VT, busker fests have been going strong for two decades.
Buskers are street performers who toil for tips. Bringing them together in one downtown at one time can provide a low-budget way to fill an event schedule and downtown streets.
The busker festival in Great Barrington, MA, started in 2021 and has grown to the point that performers entertain visitors 10 weekends each summer.
Five or six performers take to the streets each Friday and Saturday evening from the Fourth of July through Labor Day.
“We have developed something that has a triple return,” says Eugene Carr, founder of Berkshire Busk and Community Busk in Great Barrington. “It creates community. It brings people downtown. It’s s placemaking in its very finest format, because it doesn’t require any building of any infrastructure. We just instantly create a space. We create jobs for artists and performers, and then naturally there’s economic development because people come downtown and they want to eat and they want to dine. And so with very, very little capital investment, you can create a festival like this.”
The full article appears in the October issue of Downtown Idea Exchange.
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