Spectrum 863. With a hat at my feet

"Christchurch is a buskers paradise." So says Jodi Wright, organiser of the recent World Buskers Festival in the Garden City. And maybe she's right, wide streets, ample malls, the open spaces of the Square. Not surprising then, that the Festival should attract performers from around the globe. Not just your standard stand-up guitar/harmonica either, as Spectrum's Alistair McAlpine found out.

Topline buskers circle the world - perpetual travellers, modern-day gypsies, and talented too. Alistair tracks down a babble of buskers, and talks street, and squats amongst the crowd as they strut their stuff in Christchurch's Cashel Mall.