Kamloops will be home to a new festival next year with plans for the Victoria International Buskers Festival to transfer hands.
The weeklong festival welcomed professional street performers from across the globe to Victoria’s downtown core for the past six years. According to the festival’s website, funding issues hampered plans for it to continue in the province’s capital.
Executive director John Vickers sought out a new community to take over and Kamloops has answered the call.
“He was looking for an appropriate community that seemed to embrace the concept and that he felt good about and I think that’s what we gave him,” said Sean Smith, Tournament Capital and special events supervisor with the City of Kamloops.
Plans for the 2018 event are in the very early stages, but Kamloops will play host to an international lineup of buskers next summer. The festival traditional features entertainers from flame throwers, acrobats and magicians to jugglers, unicyclists, balloonists and musicians.
“We’re always going after one sporting event or another and so we thought it was time to broaden our horizons and bring in some arts and cultural type activities and this seemed like a perfect fit,” Smith said.
The city will be working closely with Tourism Kamloops, the business associations and arts community to hash out the details for next year’s festival. Dates and locations have yet to be determined but Smith said there will be a number of stages for the buskers to cycle through in addition performing wherever there is a crowd.
“I think we’ve always had great tourism traffic in through the summer months and we’re always looking to enhance events and activities that people can take in,” Smith said. “Affordable entertainment is always a priority for us to look for and bring in.”
