Canadian Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame
Tony de Boer
Inducted: 2023
Few people have been more active in opening up bluegrass music in Canada and especially in Ontario than Tony de Boer. During his lifetime he has held hundreds of concerts, festivals and shows and was tireless in promoting Canadian bluegrass talent both in Canada and the US.
His initial foray into bluegrass was as one of the initial founders of the Skyway Bluegrass Club in Burlington Ontario; a club that held regular concerts and jams for bluegrass enthusiasts throughout the Golden Horseshoe / Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). He later bought property in Northern Ontario and ran three festivals on that property each year for nearly 40 years. Those festivals continue today and are run by his three children, Cindy, Patrick and Doug.
In addtion, Tony helped get many other festivals off the ground, some of which continue to be held, including festivals at Palmer Rapids, Woodstock, Cayuga, and Manitoulin Island.
Tony was also heavily involved with the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) in the US and organized many trips to their annual convention to highlight Canadian bands to the US audience. He was a board member of IBMA, organized a hospitality suite at the annual conventions where Canadian bands could be featured and is a twice recipient of the Kentucky Colonel Award for his promotion efforts.
In the winter months, in addition to holding regular local jams, the de Boer family’s Northern Bluegrass Committee ran many concerts that always featured a prominent or up-and-coming Canadian band along with a US headliner.
In addition to all this, when the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards were in danger of folding, Tony took up the mantle and continued to hold the annual event for many decades more.
