As people mill about at the corner of 8th and Massachusetts streets, a unicyclist passes through the crowd that has gathered to watch Bobby Maverick’s escape artist act.

Maverick and other street entertainers, known as “buskers,” traveled to Lawrence for the Lawrence Busker Festival, which took place Friday, Aug. 19 through Sunday, Aug 21 as a benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Many artists performed feats that seem to defy nature in the hopes of receiving money in return for their performances.

“It’s just like church,” Maverick said, jesting with the crowd, “The more you give the better you feel!”

Founded by Richard Renner, a graduate of the University of Kansas theatre department, the festival has provided the Lawrence community with a unique opportunity to witness quality busking for free since 2008.

“We have the usual guy with the guitar, girl with a tambourine kind of thing, and I thought, ‘Oh, we can do a lot better than this,’” Renner said. “I wanted to first of all, make Lawrence aware that street performing could be pretty cool here, and then second of all, make street performers aware that Lawrence could be pretty cool.”

Linsey Lindberg, Kansas City, Kan. native, also known by her stage name “Mama Lou: American Strong Woman,” took advantage of this reciprocal relationship. Lindberg, whose phonebook ripping skills and apple-crushing biceps impress even the most skeptical of men, describes the atmosphere that develops during a performance.

“It’s one of the only times when you’re standing next to the people who also come from your community, who maybe you’ve never met, maybe you have, but everybody stands shoulder to shoulder and laughs at the same time.” Lindberg said, “To come into a public space and engage with the other members of the community — that’s my favorite part.”

The initial inspiration for the festival may have stemmed from the independent street entertainers of downtown Lawrence, but Renner says he was also influenced by the professional traveling acts he witnessed at the University of Kansas.

Renner spoke of the impression the Royal Lichtenstein One Quarter-Ring Sidewalk Circus left on him during his time at the University of Kansas. Every year, he said, the troupe would set up on campus and he would skip class to see their show.

“That is what I kind of patterned the street show after. It looked like so much fun, and then they got paid afterward, too.” Renner said.

KU’s presence in Lawrence has impacted the festival in other ways as well. The university is the reason the community is able to support the festival’s unusual nature Renner said.

Renner is now giving back to KU and its students through an internship program he is hoping to establish.

“I went to school and got a theatre degree but nobody taught me how to run a theatre or how to stage an event so people could perform,” said Renner, who will draft a proposal to the theatre department and the business school. Renner hopes to start the program in the spring semester of 2012.

“I want to have an intern come in and work side by side with me and understand the marketing and the fundraising and the production side of putting on an event.” Renner said.

His efforts, along with those of the participating businesses, volunteers and performers, have been well received by both the greater Lawrence and KU communities.

“There’s always a lot of culture in Lawrence and this is a prime example,” said Chelsea Mies, a sophomore from Cheney, who stumbled across the festival as she wandered around Massachusetts St.

Unlike Mies, Brent Kimmi, a junior from Lenexa, deliberately went to see the various performances.

“The arts in Lawrence and Kansas City are awesome,” Kimmi said, “There needs to be more funding for the arts in Kansas.”

The public’s satisfaction with the festival and the unique element it brings to the downtown scene is what makes Renner continue with the festival, increasing its size and prominence with every year and “Keeping Lawrence Weird,” as it says on the Busker Festival t-shirts.

“I get to that point where I’m like, ‘I don’t think I can do this again,’ and then I’ll see how much people are enjoying it at the festival and I just know I’m going to do it again. I just know it. Whether it pays or not.”

— — Edited by Jennifer DiDonato