By Since the inception of this trip, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness some of the best and most interesting street performers. Below are a few videos I’ve captured of all the fun:
1. Mr. One-Man-Band on Church Street in downtown Burlington, Vermont:
Next is a woman on Avenue du Mont Royal in Montreal, Quebec. She is standing on and playing a makeshift/homemade upright bass. When the string snaps, she continues to sing. After the video ends, she fixes her instrument and continues on with the performance. After all, the show must go on:
Last, and certainly not least is the Tam-Tam performers on the east side of Mount Royal, the mountain the city of Montreal is so famously named after. In the summers, people gather to the park to hear the drum players do their thing. Anyone is allowed to join in and drums are sold in lots of neighborhood shops nearby. A place where old, young, hippies, business-types, babies, travelers, freaks and transients abound, everyone comes together for hours of dancing, marijuana smoking and general jubilee. The atmosphere is calm, yet exciting, and the energy level only increases as the eight-hour event continues into sunset. The tam-tams are a tradition started in the 1970s and have continued every Sunday until present day. One can hardly describe the ambiance of this event without wholeheartedly cheapening it. Rest assured that an event this liberal and free-spirited would not likely take place on the central mountain top of any U.S. city. Not to mention, the forest in which people hike, lie around and generally relax (similar to New York’s Central Park, and actually designed by the same person, Frederick Law Olmsted) is full of open-air bong-smokers, live action role-players, families, hypnotists, starving artists, picnic-goers and bike riders. It was quite apparent that I was not in the U.S. anymore. What a lovely park in a wonderful city. The best Sunday I’ve ever seen:
And one last one for good measure:
Brave New World Traveler 