
Two buskers from Ocean Beach will fight to regain their street-performance grand-prize crown this weekend as the Seaport Village Spring Busker Festival returns even bigger and better than its previous two years. Megan Fontaine and Derrick Gilday, who make up the busker team of Mango and Dango, claimed the festival’s crown during the inaugural event in 2007. After taking a couple of years off from traditional busking to create their circus “Zirk Ubu,” Mango and Dango will once again enter the April 18-19 fray against professional street performers from as far away as New York. The duo has reportedly been traveling across Southeast Asia for the last three months to sharpen their skills and earn extra cash while perfecting a Southeast Asia-themed act that the team plans to debut this weekend. It’s only three years old this year, a flea on a continuum the size of a dog (the Europeans, after all, have been at it for centuries). But the festival has gained such a reputation for its grass-roots entertainment value that the event’s brass had no choice but to add a nightly performance slate this time. Buskers After Dark, which will feature a DJ guest appearance, is designed to complement the daytime entries, featuring an array of street-performing sword-swallowers, stilt-walkers, jugglers, acrobats, comedians and musicians. And again this year, the public gets to vote for its favorite three performers, who will earn prizes courtesy of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel. The entire event, of course, features plenty of food and entertainment. The fun takes place Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19, from noon to 5 p.m., with the nighttime edition for those 18 and older running April 18 from 7 to 10 p.m. Seaport Village is located at West Harbor Drive and Pacific Highway, adjacent to Embarcadero Park North. Visitors receive two hours of free validated parking with any purchase. For more information, go to seaportvillage.com or call (619) 235-4014.








