Bala, Ontario

It is considered one of the hubs of cottage country located north of Toronto, Ontario. Thus, its year-round population of several hundred is swamped by thousands of seasonal residents and day-trippers. It is known as the Cranberry Capital of Ontario, and was once the smallest incorporated town in Canada.

Since 1942, under various management and names, the community and the surrounding area was offered live musical entertainment. In the 1940s and 50s, Big Bands like Mart Kenney, Cab Calloway, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman and Louis Armstrong played at Dunn's Pavilion. Since the 1960s, rock musicians like David Wilcox, Kim Mitchell, The Ramones, April Wine, Burton Cummings and Jeff Healey played at The Kee to Bala, as it had become then. More recently, bands such as Sum 41, The Tragically Hip, The Sam Roberts Band, Hinder, Finger 11, Three Days Grace, Sloan and Theory of a Deadman graced the stage at The KEE. In the 1980s, Bala and Port Carling were also featured in a hilarious skit by The Frantics on Boot to the Head. In the skit, a man on his way to Bala bores his companion to distraction in part by endlessly enumerating the communities' features.

Once a week in the summer months, students from a nearby water ski school perform aquatic stunts for audiences at a local park. Students form pyramids, jump obstacles, ski barefoot, and, on occasion, ski while wearing alpine skis.