About
Origins
The idea for The Busking Project (TBP) came about during an evening meal in May 2010. Recently having lost his job in public television, Nick was worried about finding a new job in an over-saturated market. His only current asset was Undercover New York, a hobby website devoted to street performers in New York City, one that had been building interest.
Nick had also been living with his nonagenarian grandmother for 6 years, who passed away after a long and wonderful life. So that night, with no job, no home and few prospects, he spoke to a good friend about his options.
The result of a long conversation was an important question: what if Undercover New York went global?
The Plan
Over the next few months Chris Smith and Belle Crawford agreed that it wasn’t just a good idea — it was worth a whole year of their lives. The team went about researching where the world’s best street performance venues were (about 160 cities), what was feasible to travel to overland (about 80 cities), and then what could be reached in a single path spanning the globe in 10 months.
The result was a list of 40 top destinations in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and South America. A budget was set for 300 days of travel, food, lodging, equipment, visas, vaccinations and website costs, and a start date was decided upon; on March 9th 2011, The Busking Project would begin.
The aim was to produce an archive of street performance around the world, a documentary exploring the lives and motivations of the world’s street artists, and a book full of our favourite photos and experiences along the way.
The Result
We have yet to see the end result, but already the team has worked hard to film over 150 hours of performances on 4 continents, to take tens of thousands of photos, to edit and post over a hundred performer videos on Vimeo, and to create a vibrant community of street performers on this website.
With the help of hundreds of people who have acted as hosts, guides, fixers, networkers, and translators in every city, The Busking Project has received press in 11 countries so far, over a hundred thousand page views, and overcome dozens of hiccups that have cropped up along the way.
Any Questions?
See our mission statement to view our end-goal, check out our Frequently Asked Questions, or go straight to our map to view the performances we’ve uploaded so far. If you are a member of the press, you can view articles that have been written about The Busking Project on our press page, download our latest press release, or view our favourite photos from the trip. And if you’d like to sponsor, host, help or inform The Busking Project, get involved!
