After a pandemic hiatus, the Sunlife Financial Waterloo Busker Carnival is back.
The event kicked off downtown on Thursday and will feature performers from around the world throughout the weekend.
More than 60 performances will be spread across three stages in Waterloo Public Square, City Hall and Regina Street.
Admission is free, but audience members are encouraged to drop a tip in the hat to show their appreciation.
It was a wet start for the 34thth annual festival, but the event’s host says it was worth it to finally start again.
“It’s been very hard not to do that for the last two years,” Randy Warren said. “Even in November it was bad. We started planning, but we didn’t do a lot of planning. I think it was March before we finally felt it was good to go.”
Tips donated during the Family Vaudeville show will go back to the festival to help plan next year’s event.
“We have a lot of special events [this year],” Warren said. “We have the debut of the kids on Friday, at the Buskermania camp. On Saturday and Sunday you can come down and learn how to be a busker in our circus workshops. On Sunday afternoon, when we wrap everything up, we have our Family Vaudeville show at 5 p.m. All the buskers get together and put on a big show.”
All events are scheduled to go ahead rain or shine.
