When it comes to the multi-faceted appeal of the Haliburton Highlands as a seasonal destination, those in the know … know.
The region’s tourism promoters make no secret of the many wilderness adventures and on-water experiences offered, not to mention the numerous festivals and special events that dot the calendar. A quick tour of the Haliburton Highlands tourism website at myhaliburtonhighlands.com is as much an eye opener for the uninitiated as it is re-affirmation for the converted.
But look more closely. Try to find a date between now and the end of September when live music isn’t featured at any one of several venues in Haliburton, be it at the newly opened 150-seat The Music Room at Castle Antiques & Cafe in the village of Haliburton, the historic Dominion Hotel in Minden, or the Bonnie View Inn overlooking Lake Kashagawigamog. Then there are the numerous and more intimate patios that pair live tunes with their menu specialties.
Thom Lambert is certainly well aware of the wealth of live music entertainment that calls the Haliburton Highlands home.
A 30-year resident of the region and digital content creator for Haliburton County, he’s a past-president of Haliburton Folk Music Society, for which his wife is the current artistic director. A musician himself, Lambert doesn’t qualify himself as an active performer (“When I do a gig, I usually put up a Facebook post that reads ‘Here’s my yearly gig.'”). Rather, he says, he’s “a music organizer” — a passion that has seen him and his wife host concerts at their home.
On the Haliburton Highlands tourism website, live entertainment listings are hiding in plain sight. The chronologically dated rundown of who’s playing where confirms an indisputable fact: Peterborough isn’t the centre of the Kawarthas universe when it comes to live music. Haliburton has it going on too.
“We’ve been pushing it (the live music) maybe a little bit more than we typically would just because there’s so much happening but we’re not really making a concerted effort to get the word out,” says Lambert, adding “We certainly want people to know.”
There is, says Lambert, more for people to know.
“Without having hard numbers, we probably have 30 per cent more performances (this summer) than we would in a typical summer,” says Lambert.
“We have a brand new dedicated venue open (The Music Room) that has a full lineup — a very, very good lineup. Through the summer and fall, they’re doing concerts every two or three weeks, and fairly major acts too. The (Haliburton Forest Festival’s) Women of the Forest Concert Series, which was defunct during COVID, resurfaced this year.”
While the post-pandemic resurgence of live music isn’t unique to the Haliburton Highlands, it’s perhaps even more important for a region whose economic health depends seasonal residents and tourists as well as locals.
“I think what also happened is a lot of our stakeholders, whether they’re accommodators or, quite often, bars and patios, recognized that music is a good way get a crowd. It seems like everybody jumped on the boat this year. You’ve got your formal ticketed events but then you’ve got more informal patio events.”
Anyone who asks Lambert how he would describe Haliburton County to the uninitiated receives what he terms his “escalator pitch.”
“It’s cottage country with culture,” he says. “There’s lots of cottage country in Ontario. There are lots of place with lakes and trees and rocks. The difference is we have this incredibly robust and diverse arts community. That’s a big part of our identity as a destination.”
“Music is one part of it — visual arts is another part of it,” Lambert explains. “There’s theatre pretty much every night all summer. We have an opera studio (Highlands Opera Studio). How many rural cottage country communities have an opera studio? I think a lot of people were shocked when they first opened an opera studio here, but it has really thrived and become an integral part of the late summer arts scene.”
While the region boasts of its fair share of homegrown musicians, it welcomes many from distant points. That opens the door to a unique live music experience for both audience and performer.
“It’s one thing to see Emily Burgess or Rick Fines in a great little bar in Peterborough, but it’s a whole other thing to see them on a lakeside patio,” assesses Lambert.
“Rick is here in a few weeks, playing at our lakeside amphitheatre (at Head Lake Park), outdoors where you’re watching the sunset behind him as he plays. You get to bring a picnic with you. Your kids get to run around and go swimming while you’re listening to the music. It’s a very different vibe than it is in an urban setting.”
“Emily, pre-COVID, did a residency here at one of our traditional resorts (Bonnie View Inn). She was there every Wednesday night for most of the summer. She said it’s more relaxing, it’s more interactive.”
“If Rick sees someone he recognizes in the audience, he’s like ‘Hey Bob, how are you?’ It’s a very different vibe. People are more relaxed and the music comes across in a slightly different way — a little less formal. You’re more likely to see some improvisation, maybe stuff that they wouldn’t normally do, or done in a slightly different way.”
Lambert notes that Haliburton’s population of about 20,000 swells to 40,000 to 60,000 with the arrive of seasonal residents. There’s a sizable captive audience for live music and top-of-their-game performers are aware of that and increasingly taking advantage.
A look at this summer’s live music schedule bears that out. Suzie Vinnick (July 24 at the Dominion Hotel and August 29 at Head Lake Park), Great Lake Swimmers (August 11 at Abbey Gardens), John McDermott (August 12 at Abbey Gardens), and Susan Aglukark (August 13, also at Abbey Gardens) are among those bigger-name acts making the trek.
“I think our local performers are elevated a little bit because they’re exposed to such a high quality of music,” says Lambert, adding ‘I go out and see a show and I’m like ‘I need to go home and practice.'”
Fines and Burgess are two local musicians returning to perform in the Haliburton Highlands this summer, with other Peterborough-based musicians including SJ Riley and The Weber Brothers Band also lined up to perform.
“We have our local bands and duos and singers/songwriters. I think the whole thing is notched up a little bit because they feel they have to hold their own in that ecosystem.”
Noting there’s a now a prevalent “sense of opening up” post-COVID, Lambert says restaurants and hotels capable of hosting live music are taking advantage.
“The Dominion Hotel is probably the most active presenting venue in the entire county,” he says. “The current owner has been presenting for years. He presents super top-notch acts — seven or eight (local performer) shows a week — and sometimes Juno-nominated blues artists twice a day on the weekend.”
Other venues in the Haliburton Highlands presenting regular live music this summer include The Rockcliffe – Moore Falls in Minden, Hollow Valley Resort in Dorset, and Haliburton Highlands Brewing and the Bonnie View Inn, both in Haliburton.
“I tell our accommodators you’ve got to talk about something other than the fact that you have comfortable beds. Somebody’s not driving past a hundred other places between here and the GTA because your beds are comfortable. I think a lot of places are looking at that and saying ‘Yeah, music is a good way to position myself in this destination.'”
“It must be working for those operators that are hosting musicians. They’re business people. They wouldn’t be forking out anywhere from $250 to $500 (for performers) if they weren’t getting that back.”
Noting Haliburton is “one of the very, very few small destinations that has a destination management plan,” Lambert says the challenge is being “kind of limited in terms of capacity. We’re not the Muskokas. We don’t have hotels — we have traditional inns, we have B&Bs.”
“The core of the plan is if it’s a good place to live, it’s a good place to visit. The nice thing about music is you’re attracting a higher-value visitor as opposed to someone who is driving through, grabbing an ice cream cone, and then going on their way to Bancroft or Algonquin Park or somewhere else. We want people to come and experience the place. Music is one of the best ways to experience a place.”
For more information on all things Haliburton County, visit myhaliburtonhighlands.com.
