Interview: 16th edition of Buskers

From July 24 to 28, the city center becomes a large open-air stage for street performers. We discuss this year's edition - titled "Volcano" - with Ilenia Ricci, Buskers programming manager along with Paride Bernasconi, Damiano Merzari, Vittorio Ondedei and Gianmaria Zanda.

This year's edition of Buskers is "Volcano."How did the idea come about?
As a team of organizers, we chose "Volcano" for several reasons: from a landscape point of view, we liked to tie in with the shape of St. Savior's, to emphasize the location of the festival. We also liked to render the idea of an explosion of musical and theatrical sets, an explosion of cultural content typical of Buskers. Finally, looking at the festival in a broader sense, Vulcan also indicates an explosion of life, joy, lightness, giving the opportunity to meet so many people from all over the world - the characteristics of Buskers for 16 years now.

Five days of street art on twelve locations in the city center; an almost uninterrupted proposal of performances. What are the biggest challenges in organizing Buskers?
Buskers is a complex and fascinating fit to build, and from edition to edition we organizers try to work better and better. Every year we receive many requests to participate; therefore, we try to close the programming as soon as possible, to conceptualize the organizational machine and involve the different departments as soon as possible.

With few means and a lot of creativity, street artists bring out the beautiful where it is unexpected-what triggers this magic?
The proximity between artists and audience allows for a special interaction, both for musical and theatrical sets. In fact, Buskers has twelve locations, half of which are set up as classical stages (Piazza Manzoni, Rivetta Tell, Boschetto, Scintilla, Palco Fleur, Punta Foce), and half as points that allow great proximity of the audience to the performers; moreover, with the closing of the lakefront road, perfect places are created for doing street theater (the Incrocio, Portici locations), as well as in Ciani Park (Jungle Degu, the new Vulcano location). I think the real magic comes from being able to experience the city in a new and surprising way.

So manyBuskers events are child-friendly. What can children discover through street art, in general? What about this year?
The amazement: looking at videos and photos from previous editions, one constant is the images of children opening their eyes wide and being struck by what is happening, something unexpected that they become part of. Also surprising is the variety and liveliness: there are so many shows, from 6 to 10 p.m. up to five can be seen.
Looking at this year's programming, children can be enchanted by Boule de Neige / Snowball, a traveling soap bubble show, but also by the large structures in Manzoni Square with the Bal Trap by the La Contrebande company, and Les Madeleines de Poulpe by the Kadavresky company. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the lakefront closed from 6 p.m. to the end of the evening, we will have a series of performances in the Crossroads area, from Matteo Galbusera to Okidok and Jessica Arpin; we will also have more classical theater, such as The Strange Comedy Show and Grand Bal Dévergondé by the company L'agence Turlututu, with music and theater - for everyone and very engaging.

More information: luganobuskers.ch