homeless wanderers, possibly tramps if you are writing UK English.

Some are street performers and play music or do conjuring tricks or other acts.

Although possibly shabby and down and out, they are not always destitute. Some manage to keep themselves clean and respectable, performing in elaborate costumes. An old pram is good for transporting their possessions!

A man who turned up in the Aarhus area lived on his pension, but played a hurdy gurdy, never more than an hour in one place, though he might not move far before starting to play again...
He used to buy himself a cup of hot chocolate in a café on cold days, but gave quite considerable sums of the money people dropped into his hat to charity. I wonder if he will turn up again this summer - or whether he has finally given up.

'Rottekongen' Cibrino used to turn up regularly where I live, to the delight of my son and his friends...
http://www.gravsted.dk/person.php?navn=cibrino

Gyldendals suggests 'knights of the road', but I am not sure this is quite what I would say.

Originally, a farende svend was a travelling journeyman, who had completed his apprenticeship and taken to the road ´på valsen´. They were members of the tradesmen's guilds, and were entitled to a meal and lodgings for the night, but had to move on if they did not find work.