Page 91 - Cool Britannia

Trafalgar Square played host to London’s busking festival to mark International Busking Day. 50 cities around the world all signed up to this global celebration of street performance including New York, Sydney, Barcelona, Paris and Hong Kong. It was a glorious sunny morning in July when Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan opened the event, with Tinchy Stryder, Jessie Ware and The Vamps lending support.The vamps performed acoustic versions of their hits to cheering fans as I chatted with crew from Gibson Brands who had the Gibson Tour Bus in the square for the weekend, making space for media interviews and of course a range of fne guitars on hand for any celebrity buskers that may wander along. The idea is to encourage raw new talent to perform and with over 25,000 people visiting the performance area in Trafalgar Square that day I’d call it a success. It always astounds me the level of talent that performs around London outside tube stations and in squares, most are recycling classics, but some of voices are just outstanding, I often stop to watch and always put some cash in the hat. It was great to see Gibson getting behind the event and real some stars supporting it. There were over 22 million impressions on social media by the end of the day. With musicians now having levels of direct access to potential fans, that would have seemed impossible even 15 years ago the entertainment industry is running to keep up, as real talent emerges quite literally from the streets. 91