Qualla: The KEE to Bala https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:18 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/p/2/the-kee-to-bala-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The KEE to Bala https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala The KEE to Bala: Introduction https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala/ Photo credit WookieInHeat, CC BY-SA 3.0. Gerry Dunn designed the building himself. No architect, no blueprints -- just a dance hall proprietor who knew exactly how a bandstand should face the crowd and how a wooden floor should give under dancing feet. At 97 years old, back at his Bala summer home in 1998, Dunn could still describe every beam he had hammered into place six decades earlier. The pavilion he built on the shore of Lake Muskoka in 1942 has outlasted every trend in popular music, every shift in nightlife culture, and six changes of ownership. It started as Dunn's Pavilion, became The KEE to Bala in the late 1960s, and in 2023 was acquired by Live Nation. Through it all, the building has remained what Dunn intended: a place where people come to hear music on the water.

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/p/2/the-kee-to-bala-wp/f0p2-the-kee-to-bala-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The KEE to Bala: Where All of Muskoka Dances https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala/ Photo credit WookieInHeat, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1929, Gerry Patrick Dunn bought a modest lakefront lot in Bala that held nothing more than a small ice cream parlour and a drugstore. By 1930, he had transformed it into a concert hall capable of hosting orchestras. The first bands to play were Jerry Richardson and the Varsity...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/p/2/the-kee-to-bala-wp/f0p2-the-kee-to-bala-where-all-of-muskoka-dances.mp3 0:06 2 full The KEE to Bala: Sunday Hymns, Saturday Swing https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala/ Photo credit WookieInHeat, CC BY-SA 3.0. The dance hall served double duty in those early years. Saturday nights belonged to the big bands -- the brass sections filling the hall, the wooden floor flexing under hundreds of dancing couples, the lake air drifting through the open walls. Sunday mornings, the same space host...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/p/2/the-kee-to-bala-wp/f0p2-the-kee-to-bala-sunday-hymns-saturday-swing.mp3 0:06 3 full The KEE to Bala: Rock, Roll, and Rename https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala/ Photo credit WookieInHeat, CC BY-SA 3.0. Gerry Dunn sold his pavilion in 1963, at age 62, to Russell Hore. The venue eventually passed to Ray Cockburn, who had run a similar hall called The Pavalon in Orillia. Cockburn understood that the big band era was over and rock and roll was king. He renamed the venue The KEE to ...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/p/2/the-kee-to-bala-wp/f0p2-the-kee-to-bala-rock-roll-and-rename.mp3 0:06 4 full The KEE to Bala: Sinking, Rising, Sinking Again https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala/ Photo credit WookieInHeat, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Parry family bought The KEE from Cockburn in the 1970s and modernized it -- liquor license, new stage, proper bars to replace the old bring-your-own-bottle arrangement. Joe Kondyjowski took over in the 1980s and poured his profits back into the aging wooden structure: a new r...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/p/2/the-kee-to-bala-wp/f0p2-the-kee-to-bala-sinking-rising-sinking-again.mp3 0:06 5 full The KEE to Bala: The Concert Giant Arrives https://qualla.com/the-kee-to-bala/ Photo credit Millsy0303, CC0. In 2023, Live Nation announced its purchase of The KEE to Bala, making the lakeside pavilion part of the world's largest live entertainment company. The prior owners stayed on as venue operators, preserving continuity with the building's past. The dress code that once demanded fo...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/f/0/p/2/the-kee-to-bala-wp/f0p2-the-kee-to-bala-the-concert-giant-arrives.mp3 0:06 6 full