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buskers.ca appears to be the offical website for the 2009 buskers festival. But there is no schedule on the website, only “schedules available on the waterfront for $2”
I am so finished with this city.
— from Haligonian to Torontoian
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2009.
34 Comments
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What do you need a schedule for? I usually just go down to the waterfront and walk around, stopping at the acts that look interesting.
But I can totally see how something like this would be enough of an inconvenience for you that you have to pick up and move to Toronto. That make a lot of sense…
What does he need a schedule for? What does anyone need a schedule for Nevermind? DUH! He wants to know what’s going on and when it’s happening so he doesn’t miss the things he wants to see or have to wander around the toilet bowl stank of our waterfront any longer than he has to. It’s ridiculous that people should be expected to pay for that!! Do I have to pay to know when a flight arrives, when a bus leaves or when a movie starts?
I’m embarrassed by this. Add it to the long list.
Enough people will still go whether or not it bothers a few people. They have to fund the event some how, cut them a little slack… Fuck people are lazy ass whiners…
People pay to take the bus or fly on a plane elocin277. The Busker Festival is free to attend.
I do not blame the OP. So you are supposed to fucking drive down to the waterfront, buy a schedule, then drive home and look at it so you can figure out which events you want to see?!? Give your heads a shake people! Not everyone wants to go to an event and just wander around aimlessly hoping to see something entertaining or that they like. This is simply a money grab.
If you want to go to T.O then good riddance. I bet Toronto will just love to have someone as sunshiny as you hanging around. Enjoy the rainbows and Lollipops but just remember that you are just as likely to get shot or be disappointed no matter where you go.
There are acts that people look for and want to make a point to see. I agree with the OP that we shouldn’t have to buy a schedule to see them. They can still sell programs down on the waterfront with bios and whatnot, but a freakin schedule?? C’mon Buskerfest, don’t be first class douche-bags
A money grab for a FREE event! Imagine! Do you think it’s at all possible that your $2 (and it is only $2 after all) might be going to the performers? Or the volunteers? Give your head a shake!
It ain’t going to be a money grab cuz they won’t be selling many of these schedules.
I’m a “wanderer” so I never use them but there are people especially with families that do.
This will pizz them off so I think this will turn out to be bad PR move. We do love to bitch about little things, eh?
Gee what did people EVER do before the internet….
OH I KNOW
They went down to the waterfront and paid $2 for a program.
*shrug*
Nice one PK – pwned!
That is annoying – not everyone’s on the waterfront or can get to it for only $2.00. That makes planning anything really difficult. The festival certainly has enough sponsors, this seems like an unnecessary obstacle – especially when the bulk of the profit won’t be coming from the schedules, but from stuff you buy at the festival. I mean it won’t break them financially, but it’s not exactly wise marketing.
“The festival certainly has enough sponsors”
Really? Do you know how much they bring in vs. their costs? I doubt it… I’ve talked to organizers on various occasions via a previous job I had and it’s quite a struggle for the performers to make much outside of what people donate etc…
As per the genious PK, she’s right on! Im sadly not a fan of cats, however this one I find enjoyable…
They need to pay for the airfare to bring buskers here somehow. You can see the schedules of each stage down there for the whole 11 days. If you don’t want to buy a program then fucking don’t.
Lol @ PK you’re so right!!
I didn’t even know there was a Buskers schedule you could get. For me, part of the experience is going down to the waterfront and stumbling upon the different acts. It’s kinda fun not knowing what you’ll come across next.
If paying 25 cents more than the cost of pop out of the machine is going to anger you enough to pick up and move to Teronna, you’ve got bigger problems.
It isn’t free if you get hassled for money every 30 seconds nevermind. You have actually been to this thing before right?
And allow me to use a better analogy, I didn’t have to pay to get a schedule for the Tall Ships and that was a world class event, not a collection of panhandlers.
Who’s hassling you for money every 30 seconds? The only people who’ve ever asked me for money at the Buskers were the Buskers themselves at the end of their acts. In case you didn’t know, that’s kind of the point of the festival.
Buskers? I have been asking people for weeks “when is Buskers” and not one person knows. Congrats to the organizers for keeping the public in the dark.
Tip, last year I bought a $2 guide, photocopied 150 copies at work (free of course), and handed them out for free downtown. Pissed the sellers off immensely.
So if the point of the buskers is to get asked for money, how is it free? I’m not banging my head on this wall anymore. Tall Ships, Jazzfest, Natal Day, all free schedules. Period.
In the hopes of putting this issue to bed elocin, I never said that I agree with them not posting the schedule online. I just don’t see it as the epitome of everything that is wrong in the world, as you clearly do.
And in my experience at Buskers, the same performers perform several times a day, for the entire length of the festival, making it pretty hard to miss someone unless you only have 1 hour to spare in the couse of tem or eleven days.
You gotta relax. The best part about any of the waterfront festivals (IMO) is the freedom to wander around and do your own thing, and not be bound to a schedule.
Nevermind- get yoru F-A-C-T-S straight. There is nothing “free” about this event. They are sponsored to the hilt, have a full time staff and that doe snot include the cash that the Buskers beg you for when you are there. To me they are shooting themselves in the foot as by posting a schedule they will get alot bigger turnout then just leaving it to chance.
2 bucks big fucking deal. you probably spend more on your daily coffee. grow up
PK, they had the event before the internet (right?) but a lot fewer people knew about it and, subsequently, attendance is not would it could/might have been. If the marketing company does not make the details of the event known on the internet they’re not marketing it very well, in my opinion. Since the HRM represents a fairly small demographic I would think the marketing company would target tourists… if the tourists can’t find event details on the net then they’re not planning for it. Only the lucky tourists who stumble off of a boat to visit the HRM waterfront will bump into it.
I’m with the OP on this one. If you live in Truro or beyond and you’re planning a day trip to see “_____” perform at the festival, absolutely, you should not have to drive to the Halifax waterfront to find out. Not in 2009.
It’s “FREE” in the sense that IT COSTS YOU NOTHING TO ATTEND. Do you have a different definition of “free”? Please enlighten me. 11 days of entertainment on 6 stages, and any money you decide to spend is 100% voluntary.
Tall ships had a free schedule posted online. Good for them. They also charged you money to tour the boats. And that event was “sponsored to the hilt” as well.
As was stated previously, most of the buskers perform several times a day, every day, for the duration of the festival. The festival does indeed have a website, and the event is VERY well advertised elsewhere, and has been for as long as I can remember. All you have to do is pick a day to go, grab a schedule once you get there for a measly 2 bucks, and you’ll be guaranteed to find some FREE entertainment. While I agree that an online schedule would make things slightly more convenient, it’s not the end of the world. It’s an awesome festival, so relax and go enjoy it!
Sure it’s a shitty marketing move, Kay, but people are too fucking reliant on the internet these days. Internet, texting, blahblah. Actual human interaction is already fully on its way to going to shit.
My point? Turn the computer off and GO OUTSIDE. Do something that doesn’t require an electronic box and a keyboard.
I’d never group chatting on the phone (text) with hanging in the library (internet). Yes, go outside but feel free to check the bus schedule or today’s products-on-sale at your local grocer or print off a map before you venture out.
I still think the content of the schedule is a good marketing device capturing the attention of people searching for a particular performer or venue.
$2/schedule of events isn’t going to make a very large dent compared to what sponsors provide for the event. You said it yourself… just show up! It’s nickle-and-diming the public and stinks of cheap cheap cheap… or is it a “Program” they’re selling? I’ll have to go check it out.
It seems ridiculous for buskers to even put out a schedule. After all, they’re buskers. They’re sort of known for their ability to grab your attention, even though you weren’t planning to attend a random performance on the street.
I think the only way to truly soak in the “busker-ness” of the buskers festival is to just show up and watch whatever is happening at that particular moment. Buskers design their performance(s) to grab the attention of random people walking down the street. If the performance doesn’t grab your attention, guess what: bad busker! Move on to the next street performance.
It’s not a “random performance on the street”. It’s a festival.
kay its a program. It has the schedule in it but it also has all the bios as well.
If they had a schedule online, I’d probably use it. Ask my kids which acts they really want to see etc. But in the 7 yrs that I’ve been bringing my kids down, I’ve never once relyed on a schedule. We go in the morning and fully intend on staying the whole day, right up until the last act. If we find we missed something, we go again. They’re here for 11 days. Last day is the 16th.
I don’t know how much longer they’ll do the festival because every year they’re here they make less money then the year before. Its becoming not worth it. So I hear anyway.
I love it when Maritimers shit their collective clam-diggers whenever anyone suggests that another part of Canada may be preferable to this backwater fuckhole.
You people are ridiculous.
I don’t mind spending 2$ on a program to support the Busker Festival if I’m already down on the waterfront. However, I work every day and I’m not going to take a 40 minute bus ride to get there and only have an hour to spend at the festival when I don’t know if any of the buskers I want to see are even performing. I feel that it’s quite ridiculous to not post a schedule online in this day and age because the best way of getting to people is through the internet. The more people know about it, the more likely they are to come. Just seeing a poster online doesn’t make me want to go. If there was a schedule then the people who would prefer to see a schedule can, and those who prefer to just wander aimlessly (which is equally as fun if you have the time) can do that as well. We’re all in different situations here, be empathetic. Maybe we are too reliant on the internet.. but jeeze people, that’s what it’s there for.. It’s a resource.
To whomever postulated that the Buskers Festival turns a profit: this is a festival that not 2 years ago, was at the point of not being able to stay afloat, because of financial trouble.
Kay: if the people from butt-fuck nowhere want to come to Halifax to see the Buskers, well, then that’s a chance they take. That’s a downside to living in the middle butt-fuck nowhere. Why can’t Halifax have a festival to itself? It’s bad enough that Tall Ships has been invaded by Americans, we need to peddle to the rednecks in the country too? Posting a schedule online for something as fluid as the Buskers, would be an absolute nightmare, because it would change almost constantly. I imagine that the “schedules” they’re selling aren’t exactly accurate and disclaim as such. And finally, it’s a great marketing strategy. By not being able to access it online, most people are drawn down to the festival and usually take in at least one or two shows. If that sort of stuff was posted online, they’d end up with people going online, seeing what was to offer and probably wouldn’t end up going.
I would like to get a schedule online so that I can take the children I babysit directly to a stage of interest, instead of wondering around with the kids saying, “What are we doing? Can’t we just sit down?!”
However, I will be going today with the kids and wondering around without a schedule ($2 can by a samosa for supper, not a busker schedule), and we will have a great time!