Last year Paul David celebrated his 20th anniversary as the One Man Band, Bandaloni,  performing at numerous fairs and festivals  across the U.S. and Canada.  The Great New York State Fair, the Iowa State Fair, and the Calgary Stampede but a few of the many venues he has performed over the years.  But all that came to a halt in 2020, as it has for so many of our fair performers.  Only a handful of fairs have taken place, and even among those, activities are scaled back with few, if any, entertainers.

This year Bandaloni is not willing to sit out the season.  He has been hiking the Bruce Trail in Ontario, Canada.  In return for fan support, he has been sharing songs as well as videos and photos of his journey on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.  This is much bigger than a way of earning a living in this season of no fairs. He’s bringing attention to all the fair and festival performers who have been left without work this year and who have received virtually no media attention.  He is also bringing attention to the beauty of the Bruce Trail with 10% of his journey’s proceeds going directly to the Bruce Trail Conservancy.

The Bruce Trail is 900km nature trail; that’s 559.234 miles, starting in Queenston, Ontario, at the top of the Niagara Escarpment and finishing at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, in Tobermory.  The trail mostly follows the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, one of the thirteen UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves in Canada.

Hiking the trail has been a challenge as many of the sections have been closed due to Covid, so he is not hiking the trail sequentially, but Bandaloni does keep returning and filling in various sections.  Follow his adventures at Bandaloni Facebook and support all our talented Fair & Festival performers.