Sadly that was not the case as her uncle, Michael, a long-time performer and busker himself, passed away last month after a battle with illness.

However, unbeknownst to Ms Cooke, her uncle had entered her into the competition as a solo artist after he'd performed in it last year but knew he might not make this year's edition.

Ms Cooke discovered she'd been selected to compete this year in the week of her uncle's funeral and initially thought she wouldn't enter without him.

"But then I decided I'm going to do it for him because it's what he loved doing," she said.

Ms Cooke was one of five musicians to perform in the grand finale of the Braddon Busking Festival on Sunday and took home third prize.

The festival, in its second year, was hosted by the Braddon Collective, a volunteer organisation aimed at enhancing the social and physical environment in the central suburb.

Despite being a scaled back event this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisation decided to go ahead with the festival to help support local musicians who have been impacted disproportionately by the pandemic.

Performers have spent the past two weeks playing sets at Debacle, Bentspoke and Lonsdale Street Roasters and competed for cash prizes and vouchers for Braddon businesses.

Drew Blundell, a musician through and through, came back for his second year after winning last year and took home the runners-up prize this year.

"You don't realise how much you miss performing to a real crowd until it's taken away," Mr Blundell said.

He said crowds at the various performances had been really supportive and wanted to get behind the acts who had been through a tough year.

Mr Blundell, who in addition to performing solo, is part of the trio Martin, Blundell & Lawson, usually maintained a steady calendar of performing at pubs, clubs, events and weddings, which was all halted by the coronavirus.

After live music was put on hold earlier in the year, Mr Blundell switched to live streaming performances on Facebook to keep engaging with audiences.

"It feels a bit futile playing to a camera on a stand," he said.

But those performances reached a much bigger audience than any in real life could have, with one video being watched 188,000 times.

They also encouraged people to book Mr Blundell in real life once it was possible and he says the work is finally starting back up again and he's now booked up to January.