I was a vendor at our Nice Thing's jewelly booth at the above noted event called Buskerfest. They say that Busking is the world's second oldest profession. And if they don't get paid well enough as a Busker, then they will have to return to the oldest profession. The Buskerfest is basically street circus with a variety of performers from music to juggling, to mime.
This year's festival was extremely well attended and the crowds and heat made for a very lively event. There were Buskers from around the globe, and some of my favourite were Jacob and Sophie from Australia, a beautiful young couple that juggle fire and do a variety of acrobatic stunts. I had a chance to speak with Sophie afterwards, and learn that she is English, and Jacob is Australian. Jacob is from a family of gymnasts and his father is the oldest man known to be able to do the iron cross on the rings in Australia. They were known to be one of the People's Choice best acts of Buskerfest, and Jacob's and Sophie's humour and carisma were obviously a strong reasong why.
Another great group was Chicago's Ultimate Tumblers, who would do a variety of height and floor tumbling routines. They emulated Evil Knevil's stunts of jumping over people and I was asked to participate, and they vaulted over my outstreched arms ( I am 6'2) and landed perfectly. They then went on to vault over 15 people standing side by side. Below is a young 16 year old by the name of Joseph Allen of Chicago, flying over the crowd.
However, one of the negatives of this event was the criminal element that unfortunately snuck into the crowds. While working at our booth, with an open canopy, a thief came in from behind and stole my beautiful Specialized Globe hybrid bike. One of my treasures was my original ipod with years of classic blues music loaded into it. Other specialty cycling memorabilia items which I have picked up along my travels over the years. This stuff is priceless to me.
The security team was pretty useless as it took forever for Toronto Police Officer Barnes to come and meet me. He then gave me a central phone number to call Toronto police to call the theft in. The central office then gave me an internet site to self report. So much for our security systems.
I know I will never see that bike again, but I now come to see the similarity between Bike Theft and Horse Theft. There is nothing lower in life than a horse thief. As urban dwellers, our bikes are like our horses of yesteryear, as we hop on our saddles and ride away off into the sunset, quietly and environmentaly. That bike knows who is its true owner as does a horse. I think we need to increase the penalty for Bike Theft, as there is nothing as personal and pleasurable in our urban life as our bikes. Maybe if the penalty was stiffer, those little sneaks would think twice about their devious acts.
Buskerfest was fun and colourful, but travel safely and watch your valuables. Apparently the crowds bring out the Horse thieves, which might be the oldest form of criminal activity out there.
Travel safely,
The Adventure Guy
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