Buskers, Street Entertainers in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire*

Places to find public entertainment

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Buskers, Street Entertainers

• WALTER REGINALD "SNOWY" FARR MBE, the greatest man that ever lived, rest his soul. he had a huge white bear and wore a coldstream guard costume, was in cambridge from the 70's until 2007 when he sadly died aged 88. he was famous for hiding mice in his hat, dancing, singing, having loads of teddy bears, and being terrific with children, he did tend to stick his hands down random peoples pants but dont we all.
• There is occasionally a guy outside footlights who plays Santana and looks like Santana. Also the guy who plays accordion drum and base is amazing.
• strange mimist near lionyard
• The guy who hangs out on Mill Road with different things strapped to his head. Sometimes a fish sometimes a loaf of bread. Found on the bench by O'reileys. Every crazy tramp hangs out on Parkers Piece.
• the crazy guy who walks up and down cherry hinton road/hills road shouting abuse at everyone (he normally wears a brown suit with the sleeves rolled up and looks a bit like a rodent) the big red tramp, me
• God bless the 80's metal throwback who bikes up and down trinity street et al with his questionable metal playing from his cassette player housed in a lovely carrier bag. Rumoured to pull a skid before changing to the other side of the cassette.
• Diamond Dave- Folk singer

• Lisa Coleman (Jude in Casualty) is a teacher in a local school
• The Dutch one man band bloke who plays 'Ruby (bang, bang, clatter!) don't take your love (boom, bang, wallop!)to town' in Petty Cury needs a good slap. Why doesn't he shove his head up his clatter, bang, bang?
• the guy who plays the tin whistle in a dumpster - class act!
• Too many to count. The bagpiper in full Scottish kit seems to have gone back up North, the guy who juggles tennis rackets is pretty handy, and there's usually a collection of lunatics in the town centre ready to shout about anything from war in Iraq to the price of fish.
• The 50 year old whore who walks through cambridge in a tiny white skirt exposing her dimpled legs
• Sally Army in Petty Cury at Christmas
• When I was at Uni (95-98) there was a very eccentric man who called himself 'Mr Barmy Art'. He basically used to go round Cambridge with a variety of objects tied to his head with a charity shop tie! I personally saw him with as lampshade, a fruitcake, a blue wooden duck and a family-sized bag of Bombay Mix! I saw him sitting on a bench on Mill Road once, so I sat down next to him, offered him a ciggy and asked him why he does this. Basically, he wanted to win the Turner Art Prize as "A Walking Work of Barmy Art" and he changed his name by Deed Poll to that. A character indeed.

• The is a funny tramp called chris who sells weed in Arbury
• Richard Baker is an artist in cambridge, he is always going out and doing his art, he frames his own pictures and sells them, he is a very good artist
• The mardy Big Issue seller makes me smile.
• the guy who busks in bradwells court-usaully saturday is really good... and hes cute too!-sings stuff like the beatles and robbie williams with an acoustic guitar
• Who said we can't fit it in? There's a busker outside Baker's Oven who is not only FITT but has an amazing voice!
• If you are drunk you should kick the pouch of money of the juggler outside robert sayle. Hilarious as the scrambles to pick up the change before it goes down the gutters. Do take care if he starts running after you with his utensils though. :S
• Theres the most imaginative Big Issue seller in the UK on St Andrews Street at the Lion Yard entrance. some of his 'patter' to shift copies is brilliant. 2join the shortest queue you'll ever see etc etc.
• The loud fellar opposite Senate house on King's parade.
• Mad Charlie who pops out of the dustbin & sings on the corner of Trinity & Bridge Street who can also occasionally be seen running naked outside Henry's when he's been kicked out!! The bloke's a NUTTER.
• mostly classical cos of Cambridges educational position.. some pretty good though.. if u want buskers go to edinburgh.
• Ask for george gunton hes a guitarist who was almost offered a contract with the strokes. hes damn good.
• My friend and I got a shock when we watched a scary guy dressed in a black cloak and a nasty mask blowing a kazoo and threatening kids with a baseball bat outside boots. somehow he made himself grow very tall and the collapse. I also saw him another time with a friend in a similar outfit. they have a sign that says "its show time".
• loas of em outside woolworths and boots on saint andrews!
• Look out for the bloke who walks aroud wih dfferent objects strapped to his head. Previous favourites have included a fresh fish, and rather large teddy bear.
• There are often good string quartets outside Boots (St Andrew's St), and the guy outside Heffers on Trinity St with the Irish harp is good. In summer, trendy-looking people sit around in groups on Jesus Green playing bongos and djambe and stuff surprisingly well. The bloke in Petty Cury with the big hat and the mice is Snowy Farr (OBE), raising money for yet another guide dog.
• Spooky guy outside Boots that mimes?!
• The Scotish bloke who plays bag pipes outside M&S and the pan pipes men
• There are hndreds and hundreds of buskers in Cambridge, and most of them are pretty good (apart form the one guy who managed to play "Wonderwall" by Oasis constantly for the 3/4hr i was within earshot). Some of them are students, some are the few homeless we have, and a lot are people who come especially. There's often a Random Kilted Piper, a young student string quartet, a very unusual Mexican Pan Piping group, and a didgeridoo scattered around the town...
• Bloody brilliant buskers... watch out particularly for the Sigma String Quartet.
• Amusing bloke who hangs around outside Marks & Spencers prentending to play a keyboard with 'Jesus Loves Us' written on it.
• New gent's barber on King Street... cheapest and best in town
• There's one thing worse than the tourists, and that's the buskers. A lost Scot wheezes away on the bagpipes in a skirt every other weekend, but he's not half as bad as the weirdo who tries to sing opera with a karaoke orchestral backing tape. He even has a top hat and jumps about when pretending to be Figaro. The awful thing is that he thinks he's great when in fact he's totally crap, and he's always excruciatingly out of tune. But there is a stunning wee lass who plays the fiddle outside Heffers, some guy with a mystical harp opposite Trinity, and occasionally a smashing Andean pan-pipe band in the centre of town.
• Talking about buskers: there was/might still be (hey, I've been away at university for a while ) a really cool guy who played/plays an amplified guitar or some kind, and does all these weird sound effects, and makes a great change from the bagpiper/opera singer/south american groups. He normally hangs about by Boots/opposite Woolies, or down Petty Cury where it meets up with the Lion Yard.
• I don't know if this is a best or worst thing really; there's this guy who sits outside Trinity every day that the guy with the harp isn't there, with a little keyboard and amplified speakers. Anyway. He'll sit there with the keyboard on demo, pretending to play away on the keyboard, and it gets so bloody annoying 'cos the only songs on it are Venus and Let it be. But then again, it's always amusing to see the tourists go by and put money in his hat for his skill and expertise. Well, I thought it was funny anyway. There are far too many tramps and so on in Cambridge though. Most of them only come in during the summer days when the tourists are there, but that just means that those who don't go back to London or wherever are just more desperate during the evenings and harrass you all the time. I'm a student, and though I'd love to help, I can't afford to go (further) over my overdraft limit for some beggar. Oh well. I guess that's it.
• The nutter who tries to sing opera in a top hat to a kareoke tape is called phillip and he is certifiable. He's been living in cambridge for about ten years, applying to Kings College Choir every year, and doesn't understand why they won't let him in. The girl who plays violin outside heffers is indeed excellent. The nutters who wander around playing bongos are not, and should be banned.
• Look out for Snowy (MBE)- an extremely old man who has rabbits, doves, and mice running around him and has collected tens of thousands of pounds for the association for the Blind.

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Last updated: 2008-10-14