The 14th edition of the Australian National Busking Championships have been declared the biggest and best yet by founder and ANBC president, Allan Spencer.

Across two busy days, thousands of people watched some of the nation’s best buskers ply their trade in Cooma’s CBD.

Buskers came from Perth, central Queensland and across NSW for the event. Adding to the occasion was the Loy Krathong Thai Festival festival and Rotary markets, street parade and stalls on Sunday, the weekend was one of Cooma’s busiest.

The weekend culminated in the ANBC national finals at the Alpine Hotel where Central Coast busking duo, Denim, were crowned winners.

The country/folk duo impressed judges and wowed crowds across both days.

Snowy Mountains acts featured in the Cooma regional heats on Saturday and national finals on Sunday, the highlight being Berridale violinist Justin Klempfner finishing second in the primary category. Justin also played alongside his brother, Filipe, as the K Brothers, a popular local act.

Mr Spencer praised the buskers, crowd and volunteers for making the event the ‘best yet’.

“We had more entrants, we had big crowds on both days, amazing support from the local community providing over $14,000 in prizemoney and prizes and the music community and great work from many volunteers,” he said.

“Congratulations to Denim, our newest national busking champions.

“I am on cloud nine and can’t wait to see where Denim take their talent and also, what we can do next year as our series of Australia-wide busking competitions continues to grow.”

Denim beat out buskers who had qualified for a finals berth at five regional finals around Australia to win $2000 in prizemoney and the title of best busker in Australia.

Celebrity judges, Kerrie Gambley (Haystack Mountain Hermits), John Littrich (The Water Runners) and Kyle Kash (Tamworth Busking coordinator) said they had a tough day judging ‘an amazing array of talent’ and were impressed at the wide variety of genres and talents on display in Cooma’s streets during the festival.

Runners-up in the open division were Perth ukulele comedian, Tomas Ford (Woody Campfire), and country artist, Amanda Heartsong. Woody Campfire won his way into the national grand final with a win in the Cooma heat the previous day, impressing the judges with his wicked comedy and high energy, off the stage antics.

The winners said they were honoured to win the competition and had “loved every minute” of their weekend in Cooma.

The presentations were made during a big night of entertainment supplied by former ANBC star and blues sensation LilG supported by the Snowy 2.0 band, with shortlisted buskers in the open, secondary and primary divisions performing for the judges watched by a large crowd at the Alpine Hotel, one of the event’s major sponsors.

The national grand final was held on the second day, and followed the Cooma regional heat of the competition, held for the first time on the same weekend as the national grand final.

“It was a big and busy weekend, but our best yet,” Mr Spencer said.

“Each year we continue to grow the event, I’m thankful for all the support we receive from local businesses, buskers and the community.”

The Saturday event featured a record 46 entries, including solo performers, duos and bands, with entrants performing four, 30 minute sets at designated busking spots in the Cooma central business district. They were judged on wow factor, musicality, crowd appeal, presentation and originality.

The open division for the Cooma heat was won by Perth ukulele comedian Tomas Ford (aka Woody Campfire), with Berridale violin playing brothers, Justin and Filip Klempfner winning secondary and people’s choice and Justin Klempfner winning primary.

Meanwhile, three local bands provided extra entertainment on the Centennial Park and Alpine Hotel stages during the weekend – Cool Change, The Hips and Gabi Forman and the Wayward Pilgrims, while markets, displays and workshops ran both days.

A street parade on Sunday morning featuring community groups and a large contingent of buskers was a highlight.