Kim Craig performs contortionism and acrobatics on Granville Island. Photo by Piper Mckenzie

The first annual Vancouver International Busker Festival will be held July 9 15 on Granville, Davie and Denman streets as well as at Canada Place.

During those days, renowned circus and visual artists, musicians, magicians and one statue artist will be gathered in Vancouver representing Canada, Ghana, Brazil, Peru, Italy, England, Japan, New Zealand and the United States.

Keeping the attention of strangers on the street for more than five minutes can be difficult. Yet, street performers do it over and over again, day after day. And some even get paid at the end by those people.

They are indeed talented individuals, but Michael Bonnici, alias DynaMike, says it takes more than just that.

Michael Bonnici, aka DynaMike, juggles his chainsaw on Granville St. Photo courtesy of Vancouver International Busker Festival

“You need to have talent, but you must work hard as well in order to impress the people.”

On sunny days, the 32-year-old street performer combines juggling techniques and theatrical skills to attract crowds on Granville Island, at English Bay and in downtown Vancouver. Almost instinctively, bystanders get closer to watch him juggling balls and a chainsaw, or riding a unicycle while juggling machetes at the same time.

“When the whole crowd starts to laugh together like a wild animal, it’s magic,” he says.

Michael Bonnici was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and became an enthusiastic gymnast at the age of eleven.

In 1998, during the Kingston Buskers’ Festival in Ontario, he got inspired by performers from different parts of the world. Their motivation led him to participate in the next edition of the festival.

He went on to perform in other Canadian cities, and, eventually, in countries such as Singapore, Dubai, Australia, Croatia, Macedonia and Scotland.

At one of those stops, Bonnici met Sean Dwen, a street performer from New Zealand better known as Basket Ball Jones. Dwen was a kid in love with basketball who took the chance to improve his dribbling ability with his left hand, after breaking his right arm as a teenager.

As he grew up, Dwen decided to make a living from his impressive juggling skills.

“It started as a hobby 15 years ago”, he recalls. Today, it is the source of income of a family of three, including his girlfriend and their eight-month-old baby.

“I can’t do shows and drink beer,” he says. “I have to wake up early to look after my family and to practise or to perform. I’ll continue to do it as long as my body allows me.”

According to Bonnici, buskers find Canada attractive for a few reasons: Canadians are intelligent, interested in arts, and generous. In fact, for many years, busking festivals have been popular in several cities across the country.

This year, Bonnici and four other people have come together to make Vancouver become one of them by creating the city’s first festival of this kind.
The festival organization expects at least 20,000 people to attend the event.

Dan Craig of street Circus performing the cyr wheel. Photo courtesy of Vancouver International Busker Festival

“That number would be good for a start, but we’ll be very happy if we get 100,000 people,” says Bonnici.
He hopes to repeat the surprising success of the busking event that was held in downtown Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
According to Bonnici, the street performances, “which brought in “masses of crowds,” indicated that Vancouver’s population has an appetite for street performances.
According to him, “there were masses of crowds and the buskers made everybody happy.”

Dwen believes that most of the contagious energy of busking comes from inside of each performer.

“The crowd enjoys watching you having a good time doing what you’re doing,” he explains.

For Bonnici, the spontaneous gatherings highlight the inclusive aspect of busking. “It is a beautiful source of theatre for everyone: rich and poor, ugly and beautiful (laughs).” But in response to how risk his craft is, Bonnici says “everything is risky. You’ve got to do what you love. I love street performing. I love the freedom. I love to bring people together and to make them laugh.”