Lisbon, Portugal
March 10th - 16th
Lisbon was our first destination, and thus a tough one. We spent half the time working out how to use the equipment! Buskers are thought of as beggars in Lisbon. We found musicians, mainly.
Kamau Lasana
Man in Cap, Lisbon
Romanians
Inkamaru
Marrakech, Morocco
March 16th - 21st
Although it might seem Marrakech would be a difficult second location, almost everything you need to film there is right in the central market, Djemaa el Fna. Snake charmers!
Smoking Musician2
Djeema El Fna, daytime miniatures
Snake Charmers
Barcelona, Spain
March 23rd - 27th
It is somehow illegal to sing in the streets of Barcelona, which made filming buskers there very, very fun. Lots of music, graffiti, and some political performers.
Paul and Jesse
Cecilia Bellorín
Clive
Pianolito
Made in Barcelona (longer)
Chai
Chami Cool
Yerko Fuenzalida Lorca
Rome, Italy
March 28th - April 3rd
At first we thought Rome was empty of performers. Then we met some of the most artistic buskers we’ve come across on the whole trip. Bumping into The Birdman was a destination highlight.
Adrian Kaye
Claudio Montuori
Spraypainter audio
Robina
Sabado and Eduando
Breakdancers in Rome
Techno Granny
Athens, Greece
April 5th - 9th
On our last night in Athens, we hung out with buskers in the center of town who made the whole week worthwhile. Detroit Jimmy deserves credit for making that pitch.
Pepe Peperonius
Scott Fair
Vaggelis Kiriakos
Detroit Jimmy
Istanbul, Turkey
April 10th - 14th
We didn’t get to see many street performers in Istanbul, but Istiklal still held some gems. Light in Babylon and Billy Not on Holiday stop thousands of passersby in their tracks every day.
Billy Not on Holiday
Light in Babylon
Jaipur, India
April 26th - May 1st
Celebrating our first proper destination in India, Nick decided to lose half the footage we took in Jaipur. However, the footage we still have is beautiful! Just there isn’t as much left as there was…
Calcutta, India
May 1st - May 6th
The historical and mystical train-travelling Bengali Bauls, the fancy-dress children of Bhopur, and the modern street dancing teenagers of Magic Wallrush made Calcutta as diverse a filming location as it gets.
Bahrupia, West Bengal
Magic Wallrush
Nitya Gopal Das Baul
Jakarta, Indonesia
May 8th - 12th
We spent ten hours in one day stuck in traffic in Jakarta. It’s a nightmare trying to get around, and by then we were exhausted. Thankfully, we had some really cool anarchic kids to entertain us on most of the busses.
West Javan Singer
Jakarta's Street Kids
Bejo and Abas
Singapore
May 16th - 20th
Singapore’s streets weren’t the liveliest in the world. You can get fines for everything there. Thankfully, most of the time they turn a blind eye to street performers, unless there’s a complaint.
The Lost Hat
Bloco Singapura
Didgalot
Faizal Bohtiar
Bangkok, Thailand
May 24th - 28th
By Bangkok we were sick of the heat, and had tired brains and legs. Luckily for us, there was a lovely atmosphere amongst the street performers here, who seemed to congregate in the same park to practice.
Zazi, Fire Spinner, Bangkok
Mai Balloon Artist
Tukie, Hiro, and Nat
Smoking Magicians
Karour Orchestra
Hong Kong
June 3rd - 7th
Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mongkok is where you’ll find an array of sometimes stunning, sometimes beautiful, and often bizarre street performers. It was definitely a highlight of the journey.
Mr Funny
Hong Kong Guzheng Player
Hong Kong Rose Sculptor
LED Dancing Family
Dan Berlin
Tokyo, Japan
June 14th - 21st
Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area of the world. We got there after the large 2011 earthquake, but it was pretty-much business as usual. The place to go here is the Scramble Crosswalk in Shibuya. Especially if you can get there before the cops stop the music.
Ethnic Minority
Takamatsugo
Chuge
Seoul, South Korea
June 23rd to 27th
It rained most of the time that we were in Korea, so we didn’t get a very good idea of what we might have found otherwise. However, if you go there, head over to Hongdae at night. It’s where the street party is.
Yong Seok Lee
Percussion Brothers
Moscow, Russia
Moscow was another tough city to film street performers in, mostly due to fatigue. However, the city is full of the most inspiring sculptures and architecture, and historic Arbat Street holds its share of talent, including street poets!
Russian Poet on Arbat Street
Arbat Street Drummers
Stockholm, Sweden
Beautiful, calm, easy and sunny, Stockholm was a breath of fresh air. It is, in our opinion, an untapped resource — there is so much more space out there to perform in! We got a couple of great interviews here.
The Picnic
Sebastian Pastorini
Charlie Caper: Becoming a Street Performer
Raul Mendoza
Charlie Caper: Obstacles
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen is a really fun city. Lots of street performers, some mighty plazas, and Christiania, although not the paradise it once was, is still a great place to go and see street performers.
Bryce from Hellzapoppin
An Interview with Bryce from Hellsapoppin
Vienna, Austria
More info coming soon
Artlang Trio (Russian) in Vienna, Austria
Upside Down Performer in Vienna
Living Statues in Vienna
Krakov, Poland
More info coming soon
The Falko Show: Krzysztof Falkowski as Elton John
The Falko Show: Krzysztof Falkowski as Michael Jackson
The Falko Show: Krzysztof Falkowski as Elvis Presley
The Falko Show: Krzysztof Falkowski as Tina Turner
Konrad Skrzyszewski
Edinburgh, Scotland
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is one of the highlights of a busker’s yearly calendar, as it’s one of the most famous, most historic and most attended street fests around. We were lucky enough to be in town when it was on.
Billy Kidd
Derek Twin Tango
London, England
As the largest and wealthiest city in the EU, you might expect to see a healthy street art culture in historic London. That’s not the case. There are only two pitches, and those are packed. Good luck to the rest!
The Journey Begins!
New York, USA
New York City is the most filmed city in the world, with a cityscape made from famous buildings. Between them, street performers play in every tourist hotspot, but are increasingly harassed by Bloomberg’s rent-a-cops.
Heidi Kole
Boston, USA
Boston has a long tradition of busking. More importantly, however, it is home to Stephen Baird and Buskers Advocates, an NPO that has successfully sued many in the battle to uphold citizens’ rights. We only had time to interview him and leave!
Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver’s Granville Island is essentially a busker-populated island. We got the feeling we weren’t welcome the moment we turned up (obviously the performers have been filmed — and burned — before). We still filmed some good stuff, and made good friends, taking Dawn Dreams around the world with us!
Steve Spender
DB Buxton
Dawn Dreams
Seattle, USA
Pike Place Market, the iconic home of the world’s first Starbucks, and fish flingers. It’s also home to a busy busker schedule of increasingly famous locals. We happened to be there while their buskerfest was running!
San Francisco, USA
San Francisco is gorgeous, arty, cool, and full of tourists, the perfect place to find good street talent. We probably had an easier and healthier time filming here than we had done for MONTHS. Thank you San Francisco!
New Orleans, USA
It’s impossible to say the word New Orleans without thinking of catastrophes. This isn’t just unfortunate, it’s really misleading — we found the streets to be FULL of life, colour and fun, thanks in a large part to their vibrant and thriving street art community.
Havana, Cuba
We envisaged a city-wide Buena Vista Social Club atmosphere before coming to Havana, which, if you’re prepared to go indoors, might be true. However, our focus lay solely on the streets, and there wasn’t much to choose from. What we found, though, was beautiful and sometimes mind-blowing!
A Slow, Wet Day in Cuba
Santiago, Chile
Aside from taking part in a riot (street music meets tear gas) and viewing the stars of the Southern Hemisphere from a mountaintop, we also filmed some great stuff here. There’s an almost European feel to the pitches in Santiago.
The Stars at Night
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
We were robbed here by children with cardboard knives. Thankfully, they didn’t take any footage. We also had a clown beach invasion party to commemorate the end of the trip. And even filmed some buskers.
