St. Catharines Downtown Association

Nice to see efforts being made to bring a busker festival to downtown St. Catharines.

Should provide some welcome amusement for city dwellers, perhaps even attract a tourist or three.

For the uninitiated, buskers are street entertainers, ranging from jugglers to magicians to musicians.

Bringing such a three-day extravaganza to a closed-off James St. in mid-August is the brainchild of Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects, a local arts group.

Now, before you start checking your pockets for loose change to throw these performers' way, a cautionary note should be struck.

The projected tab for the festival is $133,000, the vast majority of which remains to be raised. That's a lot of dough.

Indeed, the enormity of the task at hand was the reason Kelly Daniels and Ric Reid of Lyndesfarne appeared at St. Catharines city council Monday night.

They were looking for $10,000 in seed money from the city, the conventional wisdom being such a financial contribution will give the group leverage in seeking government grants and private sponsorships.

City councillors came through with money. They also agreed to give festival organizers use of an office in the city-owned old courthouse building, to consider an additional $10,000 next year and to have city staff work with Lyndesfarne to seek the aforementioned grants and sponsorships.

Please see full story by Doug Herod in The St. Catharines Standard at:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2788117