Maybe in the 70s you went where the audience went. Or should I have said folk?
In Stroud we get Morris displays on "festival" days, and even got a ceilidh set with unfamiliar faces joining in.
Stroud is perhaps lucky in having pedestrianised streets, but many towns have them these days.
Perhaps if you allied to charitable causes. Spontaneus displays for "Manchester", "Westminster" or "Grenfell" on a Saturday in towns. With willing volunteers collecting. So much more acceptable than a chuggers or more entertaining than people standing alone with a collecting box.

You don't need a PA if there is a visual spectacle. Crowds follow crowds - get a few and you get more. There is a guy who comes to Stroud occasionally and he starts shouting "please be careful this is dangerous" and he carries on like that until he has a caucus standing outside the rope square he is laying down. He is a juggler, uni-cyclist and fire-eater.