Buskers to wed at midnight

Buskers to wed at midnight

New Zealand funnyman and self-proclaimed freak Sam Wills will marry British busker Felicity Redman in a romantic but quirky ceremony at midnight on Friday (9 January).

It is the first of two weddings planned by the zany street performers, who got engaged last year at the World Buskers’ Festival in Christchurch after a whirlwind courtship spanning five months and two continents.

Their second wedding will take place later in the year in the United Kingdom.

Wills, 30, said the couple had chosen to get married at midnight in the inner city park beside the Avon River, which is where he proposed to Redman a year ago.

“We wanted something a wee bit different. It’s a really magical time of night and it’s very pretty down there with all the lights,’’ said Wills.

The timing of the ceremony isn’t the only unconventional aspect of their wedding nuptials. They’ve taken their vows from their favourite movie, The Corpse Bride, and will have their hands bound together during the ceremony in keeping with an old Scottish tradition.

And the bride will be wearing red.

After the ceremony and a reception at local restaurant Sticky Fingers the newly weds will head for Rarotonga for a week-long honeymoon before returning to Christchurch where they are both scheduled to perform in this year’s World Buskers’ Festival.

Redman, who last year performed as one half of the saucy opera-singing duo The Two Sopranos, is performing solo this year while Wills, who markets himself as New Zealand’s foremost funny freak, is back again after winning The Press People’s Choice award at last year’s festival.

The couple, who first met while performing in Edinburgh in August 2007, says Christchurch’s World Buskers’ Festival holds a special place in their hearts and that they now consider the Garden City their New Zealand home.

This year’s World Buskers’ Festival starts on January 22 and runs until February 2. Some of the best street performers from Argentina, Japan, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia will be performing alongside a great line-up of home-grown talent during the course of the 10-day free festival.

The full programme for the World Buskers’ Festival can be found online at www.worldbuskersfestival.com http://www.worldbuskersfestival.com .

ENDS

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