Set to create mayhem, disbelief and a lot of laughter on central city footpaths next month is the annual Council-supported buskers festival. It runs from 15-26 January.

The lineup for the 2003 event — the CPIT World Buskers Festival — has 23 acts from around the world.

The Christchurch City Council core-funded festival is a leader in Australiasia. Each year the organisers get more than 100 applications from international acts hoping to secure one of the spots.

Added for 2003 to the popular daytime central city programme and evening shows are Buskers at Brighton — daytime street performances in the Brighton Mall on 25 and 26 January — and the Busker's Open Pitch, an opportunity for local acts to show off their talent, at the City Mall amphitheatre.

Also scheduled after the festival is an educational event called The Art of Street Performance, featuring tutors and performers from the festival and from CPIT’s School of Circo Arts.

The diverse talent provides comic wit, outrageous skills and the type of energy that demands attention. The programme includes American/Brazilian comedy duo Planet Banana, Dutch acrobatic balancing duo Amar, Russian circus acrobatic comedians Coexistence, American comedy dancing duo Blackstreet Boys, Sublimit from Japan, Hotnuts and Popcorn from Canada, Dan the One Man Band, statue acts by Jean D'Arc and Mathew Flinders, British duo Skatenaked, and mobile muralist Jon Hicks.

Also on the 2003 card are American yoyo man John Higby, German mime Ulrich Gottlieb, Australian hoop acrobat Judith Lanigan, The Rhonda Movement, the all new Shirlee Sunflower show and the dancing feet of Andy Zap the intriguing Rumpelstiltskin.

• A programme for the CPIT World Buskers Festival comes out with the 27 December issue of the Press and will also be available from then at Council Service Centres and libraries and at the Arts Centre.