This weekend there was more local music than I could shake a stick at. Aside from your usual good local rock shows, there was the Fiddlin’ and Pickin’ championships in Lawrence’s South Park. But the real fun was at the Lawrence Busker Festival.

We started our journey on Friday night, when we headed to check out local wizard J Phoenix. We caught him performing a live electronic music set in the alley. It was a one-man-band spectacular, think Bert from Mary Poppins, but from OUTER SPACE!!

And look at this wacky thing he’s got on his wrist. Awesome.

Eventually people would wander by, and he’d have them join in on one of his many…uh…buckets, as evident in the clip below.

After that we moseyed on down a couple of blocks to find another street band. These guys had TWO drummers.

Also, did anybody else see stilts guy Friday night? Here he is taking a break.

Not sure if he busted out the stilts for Buskerfest, or if he does this sort of thing all the time.

Buskerfest wasn’t just home to musicians this weekend. You could find plenty of street performers.

I think my favorite street performer was the statue/robot guy. He was especially cute with the children. Although it was a little creepy when he winked at the women (kind of like the robot in “I, Robot”).

But my favorite part of Buskerfest is always the bagpipes. Who doesn’t like a giant, colorful and noisy display in the middle of downtown? They always seem to draw a big crowd.

I didn’t get out on Sunday, but I’m sure a lot of you did. Three days of free (sort of free, they work for tips) local outdoor music is awesome. Buskerfest FTW!




But with the festival comes a little (just a little) sorrow for me. This usually marks the end of my Summer of local music fun. The students are back in Lawrence, flooding the venues with plenty of rowdiness, and it’s going to get chilly soon, so no more concerts in the park. From here on until Spring, it’s indoor venues, but that’s cool. I heart Lawrence’s venues. Shouldn’t be a bad fall or winter.