PETER’S PLAYERS VENUE FOR SALE — BUT NOT CONCERT BUSINESS
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — It was an “emotional” night as music returned to Peter’s Players Saturday.
Peter and Michelle Swanek welcomed back a small group of devoted music lovers to hear Juno winners Paul Reddick and Steve Marriner and the latter’s fellow Colin James band member Chris Caddell in a limited seating concert.
The 30 diehard fans of the popular music venue had plenty of room to spread out and experience the blues in the first show there since COVID-19 forced it to dim the lights on the stage.
They remember the last concert there in March as the day the music stopped; and feared the worst — the loss of top-notch rock and blues acts.
What made it more charged wasn’t the big iconic orange billboard out front advertising its “8-8” return — but a tiny red and white sign that couldn’t be overshadowed.
Foreshadow more precisely.
The ‘for sale’ sign posted along Muskoka Road south caught the attention of passersby just last week.
A portent of the pandemic.
And Peter Swanek confirmed it to the select audience lucky to hear the three musicians — and for him to be the harbinger of sad news.
The site of more than 400 concerts in town since April 2008 is on the block — a cinder block building and new inn that has become a musical mecca far and wide and playing host to stars like actor/singer Kiefer Sutherland.
And it has everyone singin’ the blues.
However, it’s not all bad news — the Peter’s Players brand and business are not for sale.
Not really, both Swaneks told MuskokaTODAY.com Monday in an interview.
But it could be for the right price, says Michelle.
The same for the parking lot across the street — where the owners of the food truck the Swaneks rent space to were glad to hear the evening tunes again.
The Swaneks’ shows will go on.
Peter’s Players will live on for now they say for sure.
Until such time as a deal can be made.
They viewings every day last week with tire kickers.
It’s part of the couple’s life plan that they’ve had the past few years, said Michelle.
“The next phase of our lives.”
The two enterprises are a grind,” she says.
“Peter still loves the music.”
But she says they have to be there every day from their home on the Muskoka River in Bracebridge.
“We’re not tired of the music,” says Peter, adding they plan to keep the music going somewhere else if they sell the theatre and their original home in this real estate transaction.
But “we don’t want the overhead and the time it takes to run them,” says Michelle.
And they don’t want to return to the roots with just the bandstand in back of their first home that Peter bought in 2006.
After having to cancel shows due to COVID, there’s three Saturdays in August and possibly a boat cruise on the Wenonah II Sept. 12. But that depends on how things play out health-wise.
There’s also shows scheduled through the fall — again up in the air.
With seating limited to 50 by provincial edict (law), that’s about half the capacity.
So the numbers are hard to crunch, admits Peter, who launched a brick wall fundraising campaign.
Even at $105 a pop for wide seating Saturday past and $125 a head Aug. 15.
Even an attempt in July to put on a concert at the Muskoka Drive-In in Gravenhurst fell through for lack of interest, even after receiving a $25,000 grant to put it on and arranging for a stage for the daytime car concert.
Peter said the health implications also just wouldn’t make it work.
So they’d like to concentrate on continuing the success they say they’ve had with two winter resort tours they’ve led in Jamaica and more local shows like the boat cruises.
Peter’s Players has been so “powerful and medicinal for us and our volunteers,” said Peter.
New owners could conceivably continue the same concert format with a new name — just not under the Peter’s Players brand.
And the Swaneks said they don’t want to manage it for someone else.
Or whoever buys it could turn it into a “microbrewery or restaurant or whatever,” said Michelle.
Peter said he’s love for Keifer Sutherland or any of the other musicians to buy it.
But for now the day the day Peter’s Players music stops is not on the schedule.
Next up, Aug. 15, Against the Wind: The Bob Seger Experience; and Aug. 22 it’s 23-year-old Kitchener guitarist Matt Weidinger and his band.
See a link to their real estate video at https://homeshots.hd.pics/830-Muskoka-Rd-S?utm_source=Concert+Announcements&utm_campaign=5629a61eb4–
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