I'm not sure if this counts as busking...

Some friends and I loaded up in the back of a truck to go to a music festival at popular concert spot in western wisconsin, USA. Our plan was to get to the camping area around the time the festival closed on Friday night, sing for our supper, and then try our fortune in the parking lot early the next morning. We played the lot that night and earned a little grub, hopped in the camper fro a good nights rest, and awoke to an entirely deserted venue the next morning. none of us had researched enough to know it was only a one-nighter.

So we broke out a bottle we were saving and played some tunes for ourselves, having nothing better to do. while we were playing, we kept hearing shouting from somewhere, and finally we had to investigate.

It turns out that one of the camping areas close to the venue offers a shuttle that takes campers up and down a river so they can float it on innertubes. So we sat down alongside the river and began playing for the floaters.

It worked like a charm! People began throwing all sorts of things: money, beer, wine coolers, food. We played until we ran out of tunes, but since our patrons only heard us for a few minutes while they floated by, we could start over again without a problem! We began asking what people wanted to hear...you only needed to know one verse of a song, just enough to get the requester out of earshot. I'm not a seasoned street performer, but this was easily my most successful and rewarding experience wrapped into one!!