Freeze Ya Bits Off Busking Competition

17/12/2024

Registrations are now open for Freeze Ya Bits Off Busking 2025! 🥶 🐧

Think you’ve got what it takes to bring Gore’s streets to life this winter? Bring your talent, bring your energy, and bring the heat to our frosty festival.

There are cash prizes up for grabs and spots are limited, so don’t miss your chance.

Register now to secure your preferred time by clicking the link in the comments below 👇

10/11/2024

We've been busy behind the scenes preparing for the 2025 Freeze Ya Bits Off Busking Competition 🐧

Based on your feedback, we've changed our award categories to be a mix of the old and the new:

🎶 Virtuoso: For those with experience, who have recorded music or sold tickets to shows. This category will be broken down to Plugged and Unplugged.

🎻 Upcoming Artist: For those less experienced who do not meet the Virtuoso requirements. This category will be managed by age bracket - Under 14, 15 - 20 and 21 & Over.

Plus, our much-loved Schools, People's Choice and Peter Reid Encouragement awards will continue on as normal.

These changes see the removal of our group and individual categories as we try to make the competition more fair to our wide array of buskers, who come from all different levels of skill.

We'll also be increasing our busking slot timeframes to give even more people a chance to compete, which includes moving the School competition back to Thursday.

Watch this space to find out more!

07/06/2024

Survey feedback prize draw results!

Thank you to everyone who completed our feedback survey. We had a great mix of constructive feedback, suggestions and things you enjoyed this year.

Our randomly drawn winner is Ebony, who receives a $100 New World Gift card 🥳

Stay tuned and see you next King's Birthday Weekend for our 2025 competition 🥶🐧

05/06/2024

Thank you to everyone who has completed our feedback survey so far!

A reminder that the draw for a $100 New World voucher closes at 12 noon this Friday, so make sure you get your say in before then 🐧

You can complete the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8YCJWW8

03/06/2024

02/06/2024

What an incredible weekend! We've had so much fun and we hope all of our buskers, attendees and supporters did too 🪕

We would love your feedback on how we can make next year's event even better.

Head over to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8YCJWW8 to share your thoughts and you can go in the draw to win a $100 New World Gift Card.

The winner will be randomly drawn and contacted by 12 noon, Friday 7 June 🐧

02/06/2024

Congratulations to all of our finalists at today's show and thank you so much for your incredible performances.

Here are the final results:

GROUP
Winner: Maplewood String Band
Runner-Up: Father & Son

INDIVIDUAL
Winner: Jon Collins
Runner-Up: Keily Smith

UNDER 14
Winner: Lily Macleod
Runner-Up: Karston & Sophie

PETER REID ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD
Winner: Lexia

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
Winner: Kelmo
Runner-Up: Keily Smith

Thank you to everyone who came to support our buskers, to our wonderful judges Brendon, Caveman, Hanna and Joseph, to Jackie Tav our photographer and our fabulous MC Simon.

Last but certainly not least, thank you to the team at the SBS St James Theatre for all of your hard work pulling this final together. You did a fantastic job and we are so grateful.

Watch this space for photos to come!

01/06/2024

Another big day for our buskers! 🐧

Today is the grand final and thanks to the team at VandeWater Jewellers, we have some very attractive trophies polished and ready for our finalists (seriously, how good do these look!?)

Doors open around 3:00pm and showtime is 4:00pm - 6:00pm

We would LOVE to see you there and remember, it's FREE to attend 🤩

It'll be a great show!

01/06/2024

Congratulations to all of our buskers on their fantastic effort today. Rather than freezing their bits off, most were blown away by some gusty weather! 🌬

After much deliberating by the judges, here are the finalists for tomorrow:

OPEN GROUP
- Maplewood String Band
- Paula Connor & Kylie Davies
- Father & Son
- Niania Family

OPEN INDIVIDUAL
- Keily Smith
- Andrew Logie
- Molly Harrison
- Jon Collins

UNDER 14
- Lily Macleod
- Liam Keating
- Kelmo
- Karston & Sophie

And our People's Choice Award contestants, as voted by you, are:
- Keily Smith
- Kelmo

Catch all of these acts, plus the James Hargest College - Senior Campus band performing at tomorrow's final, 4:00pm - 6:00pm at the St James Theatre.

It's free to attend, no tickets required and if today is anything to go by, it'll be a fantastic event.

See you there! ✨

01/06/2024

Voting for People's Choice is now closed and all of our auditions have been completed.

Stick around on Main Street to see the Truck Parade very shortly and watch this space as we announce our finalists later this afternoon 🤩

Thank you everyone who came out to support our buskers today and remember our grand final tomorrow is FREE to attend, starting at 4:00pm at the SBS St James Theatre.

01/06/2024

ROUND TWO of busking has now started! 🪕

Check out all our new buskers along Main and Irk streets and remember you can vote for your favourites by scanning their QR codes, or filling out a voting slip with their number at our stand outside Hello Banana.

Voting closes at 2:00pm 🎤

31/05/2024

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITES! 🤩

The competition has officially started and you get to take part with our People's Choice Award 🥁

Each busker will have a poster with a number and a QR code.

Scan the code using the camera on your smartphone to vote for your favourite acts
OR
Write down the busking number on one of the voting papers at our stand on the corner of Main & Irk street.

You can only vote for each busker once per device or voting slip. The two highest-voted acts will then go on to the final, where they will battle it out to win the award and $350 prize money.

Happy voting everyone! 🐧

31/05/2024

Tomorrow is the big day! Here's a reminder of what you can expect:

Round one of buskers: 10:00am - 12 noon
Round two of buskers: 12 noon - 2:00pm

Sunday: FREE Final at the SBS St James Theatre, 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Buskers will be on both sides of Main Street from the roundabout by Howl at the Moon, to the roundabout by the public toilets, and on both sides of Irk Street down to just past the SBS St James Theatre.

Tipping is absolutely encouraged and you can vote for your favourites in the People's Choice Award by scanning their QR code or dropping a vote off at our stand on the corner of Main and Irk Street.

See you there 😁

31/05/2024

Though the School's competition may have been cancelled, we were thrilled to see both Balfour School and James Hargest College - Senior Campus take to Main Street today to busk anyway.

It was clear they had put in loads of hard work and practice, so we decided to award Balfour School with first place, Primary and Intermediate and James Hargest College - Senior Campus with first place, High School.

Congratulations to both schools on their hard work! They truly deserve the prizes.

The band from James Hargest will be opening the final on Sunday, where you will be able to see them accept their trophy and certificate as well. Make sure to come along and watch them perform! They're fantastic 🎷

30/05/2024

Online busking registrations close at 5:00pm today 🕔

But don't worry. If we have spaces left, you can still register at our Freeze Ya Bits Off Busking stand on the corner of Main and Irk Streets tomorrow morning.

There are currently only three spaces left for the 10:00am - 12 noon slot and the afternoon is fully booked out 🤩

29/05/2024

Saturday's forecast is looking wet but surprisingly warm at a predicted 18 degrees 🌦

This fantastic event is free for attendees to come along and cheer on our buskers, so bring your brolly and some waterproof shoes and head to Main & Irk streets between 10:00am - 2:00pm for some literal singing in the rain ☔️

Also note: if you see a couple of our buskers arriving a little late or leaving a bit early, it's just because they've also got Gold Guitar auditions (be sure to wish them luck!) 🎸

See you there! 🤩