?In an effort to give some much deserved attention to local buskers and the art of street performing, Seaport Village will hold their first busker festival where local acts are invited to showcase their skills and compete for a summer contract.
Seaport’s Spring Busker Festival, a free event on Saturday and Sunday, May 12 and 13 will serve as a guiding post to gauge what kind of entertainment San Diego wants to see, according to Seaport Village Marketing Coordinator Megan Capizzi.
According to Capizzi, busker is a term used for street performers, whether they entertain by singing, dancing or even reciting on the street. Usually buskers perform on the street to solicit money, according to the web site, wikipedia.org.
However, Seaport’s buskers won’t be asking for money, but for votes.
In the spirit of American Idol, visitors will be given the chance to vote on which act they want to stick around. Capizzi said the act that garners the most votes would be awarded a three-month summer contract to perform in Seaport Village.
“The reason that we decided to throw a street performer festival was we wanted to introduce some new entertainment,” she said. They also wanted to give local performers a foot in the door at Seaport Village.
“So we thought the perfect way to get some new entertainment in here, as well as give some local San Diegans some exposure, would be to throw the festival,” Capizzi said, “then to have San Diego vote on their favorite so that we could go ahead and fill our entertainment slot with the crowd favorites.”
In addition to the street performers, the merchants of Seaport Village will offer special sales and displays throughout both days of the festival.
“We’re going to have about nine buskers … entertaining from 11 [a.m.] to 4 [p.m.] along with the stores,” Capizzi said, which will have interactive exhibits. “Like the Village Hat Shop will be decorating hats and the Soap Opera will have a hand cream demonstrations – things along those lines.”
Ocean Beach locals Megan Fontaine and Derrick Gilday, or “Mango and Dango” as they’re known in the streets, are set to showcase their skills at the festival.
Performing together for the past three years, Gilday said he and Fontaine have spent the last year or so traveling through Copenhagen, Switzerland and France, among other places, in their Volkswagen bus, perfecting their street acts.
“When we found out about the one [festival] in San Diego, we jumped at the opportunity,” Gilday said.
The duo will appear throughout the weekend in three or four daily shows where they’ll perform acrobatic balancing acts, juggling, hula-hoop dancing and physical comedy.
Gilday expressed his gratitude for the event, which provides a venue to showcase the talents they’ve been honing while traveling all around the world.
“In San Diego there’s not many adequate venues for street theatre and plus there’s a lot of very strict laws…so it’s difficult to find a location where you can go out and bring art work – live performance art – to the masses,” he explained. “This busker festival really gives the entire community of San Diego a chance to come out and see these street performer acts that otherwise they wouldn’t be able to see.”
After watching the street performers, visitors will be encouraged to vote on their favorite act. Two voting booths will be available, in the east village and west village, according to Capizzi.
“It’s going to be very active, there’s going to be a lot going on, you’ll definitely be able to spend a very nice day down here,” Capizzi said.
Seaport’s Spring Busker Festival runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, May 12 and 13. Seaport Village is located at West Harbor Drive and Pacific Highway, adjacent to Embarcadero Park North, Seaport Village offers two hour parking validation upon any purchase.
For more information, visit www.seaportvillage.com or call (619) 235-4014.