Buskers After Dark

I heard about this last year and so this year back in March I was excited to attend. When we got there I had no idea where it was. It was night time and I didn’t see the acts anywhere. So we walked and walked around until we found the crowd and security. It was next to Ben and Jerry’s. It was actually pretty cool. The night time shows are a bit rated R with Swearing and Adult Jokes. The acts are pretty good though. My favorite was the guy who just stuck knives in his mouth and sharp things through his body. It was both disgusting and amazing at the same time.
It’s a great free show if you’re out and about in the area. I enjoyed it.

I went to this event a couple years ago when they only had it in one area and it was all pretty mature acts. It seems along the years more & more families have flung to the free event and the acts are less entertaining. Now don’t get me wrong everyone has their right to entertainment but with the drinking going on I don’t think I’d want my kids around. This year wasn’t as fun as previous years– mostly due to the large crowd that you could hardly navigate to. The acts were ok and that’s putting it nicely. I don’t think I’d ever go again unless there wasn’t anything else to do. But hey if you’ve got kids and they like circus acts this might be your thing!

As some other Unilocaler commented… every day learning something new. I did not know either that street performers were called buskers (need to find out where this comes from). That said, the shows I saw this week end at Seaport Village were nothing out of the ordinary, but for a free event I guess you cannot expect grandiose performances (also, if it was paying, then where is the fun of ‘street art’ by nature ‘give me what you think I deserve’).
I liked more the fact of walking around Seaport Village enjoying a sunny, warm and breezy weekend than the performances because it was super crowded and you could barely see anything without having to to jump to see something (I am small and everybody seemed to be too tall:). Still I think it is a great initiative to attract visitors both local and tourists. The human statue was my favorite, too much time putting that makeup on… that is a plus and I know what I am talking about!

When I heard about this event I was instantly sold. I’ve been wanting to get over to Seaport Village for a picnic for quite some time and this was the perfect chance to do so. It was a beautiful day and we had a lovely time walking around, picnicking, chatting with strangers, and catching the occasional act. Pretty much as we could have done on any day of the year.
As far as dealing with crowds to see the «bizarre acts from around the world», I’m left feeling a little underwhelmed. The schedule I’d downloaded was clearly wrong — and as such, we ended up seeing the same decent but not ‘awe inspiring’ act three times and not the ones that we wanted. The first half of the day was pretty «kiddy» which we were fine with… we could wait for the after dark portion for things to get spiced up. But they never really got beyond lukewarm.
The crowd grew a little older as people from SD Citybeat swarmed to the promise of $ 1 beer… but that’s it. There were still quite a lot of children around in the «18+ zone» that the security guards did nothing about — which is annoying when it’s been touted as an «adult party». We were a little sad to see that the scheduled street performers were mostly the same ones that had been performing earlier in the day — including the one we’d already seen twice by mistake. We stuck around until the very end to see the fire eater… but were again disappointed when most of us couldn’t even get close enough to see. (I should note that this wasn’t an «from around the world» act either — we met his buddies outside and they’re all locals.)
As far as this $ 1 beer promise: I suppose there was SOME $ 1 beer… I saw people coming out with it, i heard about it, but I couldn’t find it. I must have picked the wrong $ 1 beer line, because after getting to the front of the 20 minute line and ordering some $ 1 beers, the frantic woman behind the counter screamed at me: «ONE TACO PER BEER! YOU WANT BEER, YOU BUY TACO!». I quickly decided that full price large beers were the best option for me. These were $ 6 for a huge glass so I was okay with it.
All in all, we had a lovely time! I feel like they really oversold what these acts were going to be, but that’s okay, it was free and we still had a blast.
Would I come back again? Sure, if nothing else was going on and I felt like having a nice day near the water, the fact that the event is going on wouldn’t deter me at all… Would I ever say «OMG you’ve got to check out this event!» to a friend? No way.

Poorly organized. Failed to utilize entire seaport. Couldn’t see a thing amongst the crowd. Dollar beers were the only positives.

I expected something that was much more that what it ended up being. They only had one act performing at a time. One of the acts was supposedly a «sword swallower» etc but she just did an awful job at faking swallowing a balloon. We got there on Saturday night which was supposed to be the best night and if you didn’t get there hours ago to save a spot up front it was impossible to see hardly anything. We all tried to stand on the planters or benches surrounding the performance area but every 30 seconds were told by security to get down. The advertisement stated the show went until 10pm but shortly after 9pm the show was done and all they had was music for people to dance to which sadly, a small group did end up dancing. I was expecting multiple performers spread throughout Seaport Village. Absolute waste of time. Wouldn’t go back unless they add some bleachers or allow you to stand on benches/​planters etc. Until they make substantial changes I’d say find other plans because you’ll be disappointed you wasted your time. You’ve been warned :-)

I was really underwhelmed. I was expecting there to be buskers scattered around Seaport Village, but they only had them in one place near the carousel. Of course that meant that the crowd was 10 people thick and it was hard to see anything. Those people who stood on benches or rails to see got quickly pulled down by security.
The two acts that we saw — in 2 hours — were good. It’s not often that you get to watch a guy in his undies on top of a 10′ pogo stick. Or a girl with a fiery hula hoop catch marshmallows in her mouth. But for the hype it was disappointing. Both acts were short, and there were long intermissions in between.
The crowd seemed most excited by the $ 1 beers that were offered if you signed up in advance — and only till those special kegs ran out. Food and drinks in the regular Seaport places were, as always, expensive, and the lines were long.
Yes, it was fun, but I can’t say that I’ll be excited to come back again next year.

Do you know what a busker is?
If you do, you have one up on me, because I never knew that street performers were known as buskers. Hmmm… you learn something new everyday!
After we ate at Roy’s we headed down the seaport boardwalk to the carousel where the Buskers after Dark event was happening. WOW… if you like a freak show, jokes, free entertainment & $ 1 beers… then this is the event for you!
We got there just in time for some performers that were doing some acrobatics… jumping over a row of about 8 people!
Act 2… this was the freak show!!! This guy was swallowing swords!!! And he had people from the audience staple money to his body using a staple gun!!! OUCH!!! Depending on the denomination of the bill…$ 1 bills were stapled to his torso…$ 5 on his nipples…$ 20 on the forehead!!! All I could think was OMG!!!
Act 3… these guys were silly! They somehow ended up stripped down to their boxers & tied together in chains. And then there was BERTHA!!! OMG what is wrong with that woman? (Some lady from the audience that made the most innocent thing sexual!). These guys juggled fire torches while one was on top of a pile of chairs!!!
Anyways, very entertaining & funny!!! Oh yeah… how can I forget the cheap bear? They were offering $ 1 beer from 7−8pm, including Pyramid Hefenwiezen! $ 2.50 until 10pm (when the event ended).
Definitely recommend for something fun & different!