Waterford's annual busking festival Buskaid is going online this year.
It's the fifth year of the charity event, which raises money for Tinteán Housing Association.
Tintean offers women and families accommodation with support, providing them with the necessary skills and help they need to leave homelessness behind.
Since 2015 BuskAid has raised over €22,000 for local homelessness charities in Waterford at Christmas. The campaign has grown year after year and is Waterford’s only busking festival.
BuskAid founder Tadhg Williams said Buskaid was setting the people of Waterford two challenges this year:
"We’re encouraging people to make the most of the outdoors and do 5K for BuskAid, sharing their progress and our donation link with their friends online. We’re also challenging people to Busk From Your Bedroom – perform a song in your bedroom, upload it to social media, share the donation link and nominate a couple of friends to do the same.
"As well as these challenges, we have three events lined up for Christmas week. On Monday the 21st of December we’ve teamed up with Steven Stubbs and StubVid Media to do a special BuskAid Variety Prizecast live on Facebook. During the stream, we’ll be raffling some bizarre and magic prizes as well as live music and special guests. The Prizecast will no doubt descend into absolute chaos but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
"On Tuesday the 22nd of December we’re invading the now extremely popular Jordan’s Session in the Jordan’s American Bar group page on Facebook. We’re encouraging people to share a song, raise a virtual drink to raise funds for Tinteán.
"Finally, on the 23rd of December we’ll be very proud to present a special live stream concert BuskAid live, celebrating the best of Waterford talent.
It will be available to view on the Waterford in Your Pocket site.
Speaking about the different events, volunteer coordinator Anna Jordan said “what we really wanted to do was make sure we’re engaging with the community. The beauty of BuskAid has always been that we’re surrounded by a fantastic group of artists dedicating their time and talents for a special cause, and through that reaching people on every street corner in the town. We want to do the same this year, virtually. It’s been a difficult year but we really wanted to celebrate togetherness and community as best we could.”
Speaking about the importance of this year’s BuskAid, busking coordinator Derek Flynn said; “It’s been a really tough year on everyone, especially charities. Tinteán Housing Association lost a lot of opportunities to raise much needed funds for the project this year so we’re really hoping that the people of Waterford get on board with us and donate as much as possible. This is a totally new area for all of us, we’re being totally stripped right out of our comfort zones but we recognized the importance of making sure BuskAid went ahead this year in some shape or form. Hopefully people can engage with it and enjoy it!”
Find out more on BuskAid's social media platforms.
