Leandro and Emilio Ponce are putting the “world” back into the World Buskers Festival.
The brothers from Argentina took to the streets of Christchurch to perform on Friday afternoon, becoming some of the first international acts to perform at the festival in three years.
The duo, who perform as The Twins’ Trip, said it felt special to bring their show to the city.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff
The Twins’ Trip perform on Friday afternoon in central Christchurch as part of the Bread & Circus festival.
“We can feel that people are very excited to see people coming from all over the world again,’’ Leandro Ponce said.
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“And we have this feeling that it’s special to be in New Zealand again. We feel really welcome. It’s nice to be here and bring this energy.”
The Bread & Circus – World Buskers Festival, which started on Friday and runs until January 29, was cancelled last year and only featured Kiwi talent in 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic controls.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff
Juggler, magician and circus stunt performer Kozo Kaos – New Zealand’s fastest juggler – is performing at this year’s festival.
This year, the festival features Kiwi street performers as well as acts from Australia, Britain, Argentina, USA, and Portugal. Buskers will be performing in the streets outside Te Pae convention centre, in front of the Bridge of Remembrance, and in the Scott Statue reserve.
Leandro Ponce said they felt lucky to be in New Zealand.
“This is our first time and we’re very happy to be here. It is a place that is very far from the rest of the world, so it really needs someone to invite us to a festival for us to come.
“They invited us and it is amazing. We feel like we are living the dream. Everyone wants to come New Zealand and knows it is a nice place, but not many people get the chance to come here.”
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
The Twins’ Trip say it is very special to be invited to New Zealand to perform their juggling show.
Festival director Scott Maidment said he had been working on bringing the duo to the event for a long time.
“It has been three years in the making,’’ he said.
“I am super-pumped to have them here as part of the festival.”
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff
Festival director Scott Maidment said it took three years to bring the Twins’ Trip act to New Zealand.
The twins started performing together seven years ago, busking at traffic lights and playing music in the street.
Since then, they have performed all over the world, including Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia, France, UK, Germany.
They performed in Qatar during the Fifa World Cup for a month last year and were thrilled when their home country won the tournament.
Martin Meissner/AP
Argentina’s Lionel Messi celebrates with the trophy in front of fans after winning the World Cup in December.
“We thought we would have a good World Cup, but we were champions, so it was much better.
“During the match we had some gigs, but we were there and felt the energy and all the people there from around the world.
“We were there for a month and Argentina kept going and going, and then we were in the final. We won and now we are very happy.”
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