Squid novi? (Squid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur)

What's new at this year's Buskerfest?

That would be Squid, the Nova Scotia-based precision drumming group.

Squid ended up busking sort of by accident, says piper Ryan Fraser.

The group members were all in school when they started playing together, Fraser told SooToday.com after arriving in the Sault today for Buskerfest, which runs tomorrow through Sunday on Queen Street. Squid was originally gigging just three or four times a year.

Fraser said that as group members graduated from school, they wanted to play more often and decided to give the Halifax Buskerfest a try.

"In Halifax, the Buskerfest is sort of a big staple of the summer. So we had this idea" why not apply?" he said. "We just sort of accidentally got accepted."

Squid went on to "just sort of accidentally" win the People's Choice awards for their appearances at Halifax Buskerfests 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Members of Squid, shown today at Algoma's Water Tower Inn, are Fraser, Daniel St. Pierre, Ian MacMillan and Mark Jamieson.

As for the name, Fraser said the band arrived at it by a process of elimination.

The idea was to eliminate all association with pipe bands.

"We all grew up playing in pipe bands and we wanted something to disassociate with pipe bands," said Fraser. "Pipe bands are all just so 79th Regimental and so on."

Fraser said the group came up with a few different options but found Squid really stuck in people's heads so they stuck with it.

Saultites and visitors to the city can catch some Squid starting tomorrow on Queen Street in the block between East and March Streets.

Also performing at different intervals throughout the weekend will be Bike Boy, Jonathan Burns, Thom Sellectomy, Spring Action, and the USA Break Dancers.

For more information on Buskerfest 2007, click here.