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The Scotiabank BuskerFest in Toronto, Ontario is the largest festival for street performers in North America. Every August hundreds of acrobats, puppeteers, bucket drummers, contortionists, slapstick comedians and performers of every skill and nationality descend upon the streets of the St. Lawrence Market Neighborhood to "busk" for four days and nights.
Admission is pay-what-you-want but keep in mind all the proceeds go to a charitable organization—this year it's Epilepsy Toronto. Grab a map, plan your route and hit the streets. You'll see a hula-hooping, pogo-stick-bouncing juggler on one corner to a 50s doo-wop group on another. There's the strangely fantastical, too: a showman who performs to the beat of electronic music with a combination of flaming bullwhips and lettuce-shredding lawnmowers. If you really want to move to some music, try Toronto's only 14-piece-balkan-klezmer-gypsy-punk-super-party-band, the Lemon Bucket Orkestra.
The theater happens right on the street so bring a chair and some loonies and toonies and support your favorite buskers. The BuskerFest in Toronto happens every year so if you don't catch it this August then plan to see some flame-throwing and sword-swallowing next year.