VIDEO: Street theatre wows crowds at start of Bury St Edmunds Festival

As part of this year’s Bury St Edmunds Festival a travelling group of street performers made their way to the town from Liverpool to entertain crowds.

Performances were free to view and got underway on Saturday in the Abbey Gardens from 11am, with a range of acrobats, jugglers and comedians turning out to wow expectant onlookers.

There were four acts on display and starting the performances was Comedy Pirates who gave a slapstick show which included some acrobatics as they looked for their buried treasure, with the help of the audience.

Next up was the Artist in Action which started off with a comedy routine involving some of the children in the audience, but the main part of the act was an artist who painted a face on canvas to the music of Elvis.

It was unclear for a while what the picture would be until, after it was finished, he rotated his work 180 degrees to reveal a depiction of Elvis himself, much to the delight of festival-goers.

The third act, Acro-Jugglers, offered an exciting mixture of juggling and acrobatics with plenty of audience participation.

At one point a young volunteer from the audience stood in the middle of the two performers as they juggled knives around her. The grand finale of this act was a spinning vault performed over the top of several volunteers.

Comedy Juggler, the final act, consisted of an original and entertaining routine. Once again there was plenty of audience participation, and prizes given out to willing helpers.

The act ended with an eye-catching finale as the performer stood atop his box of props and balanced a pint of beer on his head which he drank through a hose pipe, while juggling knives.

Comedy Juggler Matt Barnard said: “I’ve been to Bury St Edmunds several times now for this festival and people here are always enthusiastic, you’re always very well received.”

All of the acts were well appreciated and anyone who had missed the first round of performances got another chance, as the acts repeated later on in the afternoon.

Seven-year-old Yasmin Peters, who participated in the Acro-Juggling performance said: “It was all really fun to watch. My favourite was the acrobat jugglers because I got to take part.”

Yasmin’s mum, Lisa Peters, 35, said: “It has been a great afternoon’s entertainment for the kids and luckily the weather hasn’t been too bad.”