Barrie’s Busking Program has returned for a third season, providing performing artists with the opportunity to hone their live performance skills while animating our downtown and waterfront. Invest Barrie’s Cultural Development Officer, Amanda Dyke, sat down with one of the permitted buskers, Brigitte Eve, to hear about her experience and what she’s planning next for her music career.
At 18 years old, Brigitte is one of the youngest buskers to participate in the program. She has been playing guitar since the age of 10, when her parents who are also into music gifted her a guitar. She was singing by 13, and at 16 decided she wanted this to be her career. She recorded her first original single that year. Since then, she has focused her studies on music and the arts and is starting her first year in Stage Performance at Metalworks Institute.
Brigitte was inspired to start busking this summer after seeing buskers performing on the downtown streets last year. She sees it as the perfect way to do the thing she loves the most while making some money for school, meeting other musicians and gaining performance experience. She is certainly accomplishing each of those things as she has been performing in downtown Barrie Tuesday through Saturday almost every week of the summer. She plans to continue busking when time allows until the end of the year. She says her favourite part about busking is meeting people and hearing their stories. She has even had people stop and slow dance while she is playing. Some of these encounters have resulted in gigs and opportunities to jam with other musicians.
When asked what key takeaways she has from her first summer busking Brigitte said, “Busking has taught me how to better deal with different performance situations, and since I am going into a program focused on stage performance, I feel like I will be comfortable because I have more confidence in how I am performing”. Getting requests for songs she is not familiar with, has also taught her to be flexible and open to experimenting during performances. She plans on using these new skills as she looks to her future. She will be releasing more original songs, finishing her education at Metalworks, and one day, she plans on a European tour. Before then, you can catch her opening the main stage at Gussapalooza at 6:00 PM on Friday, September 13th, and has a gig on Saturday, October 26th from 6 to 9 PM at Grillicious.
Listen to her music and follow along at:
To learn more about Barrie’s Busking Program or apply for a permit, visit barrie.ca/Busking
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