The main street of Wingham was a riot of colour and music for the town's inaugural Busker Muster on Saturday, April 9.
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The aim of the event was to bring people to Isabella Street to make it a vibrant place to shop, and it certainly worked. Organiser Bill Beach said it was hard to estimate just how many people (besides the 22 buskers) were around.
"One indication was we collected just under 300 voting forms," Bill said. "We were very, very pleased.
"The buskers were really incredible, people danced and skated and walked and talked and voted, and the weather was divine," Donna Ballard wrote on the Akoostik Festival Facebook page.
The shopkeepers, too, were happy.
"I spoke to some of the shopkeepers afterwards, and their first question was 'are you going to do it again next year?'" Bill said.
The people voted local product Grace Callaghan in first place, with a cash prize of $200 and a spot on the 2021 Akoostik Festival stage. However, Grace had already been placed in this year's Akoostik line up, so she graciously gave the gig to second place winner, eight-year-old Travis McLachlan-Ifield from Gloucester who won $100.
"Such a lovely little kid, and when I was circulating around he probably had the biggest crowd around him of anyone. He was chuffed to get both the second prize in cash and the chance to play at the Akoostik Festival," Bill said.
Travis is a student of Wingham music teacher, Alan Clarke, who says that he and Travis now have the job of working out what Travis will play in his Akoostik set.
"He's very, very excited. He's really over the moon," Alan said.
RELATED: Akoostik dates set for 2021
Third place went to Jade Hush, which earned him a gig at Wingham Memorial Services Club and $50.
The event was sponsored via cash donations by Wingham Memorial Services Club, Wingham Beef Exports, Akoostik Music Festival and Wingham Chamber of Commerce. MidCoast Council covered the buskers' public liability insurance via the Vibrant Spaces project.
Plans are definitely going ahead to hold another Busker Muster next year, with the Wingham Chamber of Commerce Activation Committee looking into the possibility of being included in the Australian Busking Championships circuit. If that eventuates, the winner of the Wingham Busker Muster would get to compete at the National Grand Final in Cooma.
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