Southland's Top Buskers to Compete for $6,000 Prize Pool

The colder weather can only mean one thing – Freeze Ya Bits Off Busking is back!

On King’s Birthday Weekend, buskers will take to the streets of Gore to showcase their talent, win the audience’s hearts and compete to take home a share of the $6,000 prize pool.

Gore District Council Events Coordinator Jessica Swan said registrations for this year’s event were rolling in.

“The event is electric. You can’t help but be swept away by the passion of these talented performers as they make the streets come alive.”

This year’s programme has been moved back a day, to Friday through Sunday.

The schools busking competition will be held on the Friday (2 June) and this year features a secondary school’s section – “we’ve already received entries from high schools throughout Southland”.

Saturday and Sunday see the open competition with buskers from across the country performing on Main and Irk streets between 11:00am and 1:00pm. Judges will select competitors for the grand final, to be held at the SBS St James Theatre on Sunday afternoon, starting at 4:30pm.

“This will be our first year hosting the final at the SBS St James Theatre, and we cannot wait to give our buskers the whole live-on-stage performance experience.

“The theatre is a fantastic venue with plenty of seating, so people can get cosy and warm to watch the talented acts go head-to-head.” The busking is a free concert to add to peoples’ list of Bayleys Tussock Country Music Festival events to attend.

“And it finishes just in time to head to the MLT NZ Gold Guitar Awards Senior Finals,” Miss Swan said.

Buskers can register online at GoreNZ.com/events up until the day of the competition.