THE threat of rain didn’t deter the 12 young musicians who on Saturday took to Auburn St in hope of taking out the first annual BuskOut competition.
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Organised in partnership between Be Seen Be Heard and The Goulburn Regional Conservatorium, the competition was designed to encourage young artists aged five to 18 to gain confidence in performance on a public platform and to have fun doing what they love.
A secret panel of three judges walked the streets on Saturday, tasked with picking a winner from the bunch.
They looked not only for musical skill but for audience engagement, presentation and a little bit of ‘XFactor’, Conservatorium Director Paul Scott-Williams said.
“We had everything from violins to recorders, singers and guitarists and a big age range… our youngest was about 8 or 9 and the eldest was 17. We even had one travel over from Canberra, a nine year old thrash metal guitarist!” he said.
“We are particularly grateful to the people of Goulburn who were so wonderful in their support of the kids. People were so lovely to them and even though the kids were a bit scared in their first time they felt very safe and encouraged.”
17-year-old Trinity Catholic College student Zach Selmes was dubbed the first-ever winner.
Second place winner of the BuskOut was Goulburn High School student Emmett Falconer and third place was busking-regular Bailey Judd.
“Zach was really focused and really engaging. He played everything from memory so he was able to really engage with the people walking by and had a really lovely quality of playing for the entire time,” Scott- Williams said.
As winner, Selmes performed live on the radio yesterday. He will also perform in the Rock Con’s Big Gig showcase on Thursday night.
“I was so surprised! On one side of the street there was this tiny little metal kid who was raking in all the people and I was across the road from Bailey Judd who had his amp and everything set up, and I just had my guitar,” Selmes said on Monday.
“I actually realised when I started playing that I had next to no material.
I just pulled out a mixture of Boyce Avenue covers with some finger picking guitar style pieces. I ended up being so focused on the guitar that I forgot most of my words. I had to improvise when I got to the middle of the songs.”
The future looks bright for the young virtuoso, who plans to make a career of his love for musical art. At just 17 he can already perform with guitar, piano, cello, ukulele and accordion. He will audition to study for the Sydney Conservatorium upon finishing his HSC. As for busking, we haven’t seen the last of him yet.
“I really enjoy the idea of busking in general – you get people coming past dancing and singing and even if you don’t make much money it’s just a fun day out,” he said.
August 15 has been pencilled in for next year’s BuskOut event.