Time for a laugh – Buskers are back

I think most of you will agree that it’s time Cantabrians had something to laugh about. So if funny hair, acrobatics and mime artists put a smile on your face, you’re in for a treat! From 19-29 January 2012 the legendary World Buskers Festival returns to Christchurch.

This year’s performers include:  the ever popular Funny Bones, former Cirque du Soleil artist Christopher Phi and local heart throb Mullet Man.

All you need to take along is your humour, sunscreen and a pocket full of change.

Check out the festival timetable, performers and locations

Along with everything else in Christchurch, the location of the festival has be relocated to Hagley Park – renamed as Busker Park for the event.
So get along to Busker Park, grab the kids and some  friends …  it’ll be great for a laugh!

Re-Draft: where publication is the prize

Are you passionate about writing? Always wanted to be published? Then Re-Draft is the competition for you!

This annual event for New Zealand’s teenage writers is organised by Dr Glyn Strange , director of the School for Young Writers, and judged by Tessa Duder and James Norcliffe.  You can submit poetry, stories, scripts or songs which are then judged.  Each entrant can submit up to three pieces of work. Successful writers will then be published in Re-Draft.

Here’s an excerpt  from a  poem written by Emily Adlam in last year’s edition of Re-Draft, The world’s steepest street:

It was not the same
Where are they, all my lost places?
I went back, but found only emptiness.
The smell was of cinnamon traces
instead of burnt varnish; the air
touched differently, as if it had learnt tenderness
for someone else.
The past was not on display in glass cases.
Maps and addresses are no use to me
and there is no convenient office
where I may reclaim my property.

Moving, moody, funny clever – there certainly is an abundance of talent out there.  Get your hands on a copy of ‘The world’s Steepest Street’, read it and re-read it, then write you own literary masterpiece!

Entry forms  can only be found in the back of the book  (which you can photocopy at your local library) or buy a copy through the School for Young Writers . Entries close 30 September 2011.