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"Bagpipes are sort of a socially-distanced instru- ment to begin with," he said, estimating he played just two outdoor weddings in 2020 compared to over 15 between May and October in a typical year. "Still being able to do that is great. But, of course, I'm definitely not doing it as much right now because of all the restrictions." Kitchener's 150-seat Reg- istry Theatre, like other performing arts venues across the province, has been "more or less dor- mant" over the last year and a half, says executive direc- tor Sam Varteniuk. The typical waves of cre- ative activity were damp- ened by the ebbs and flows of lockdowns and restric- tions, putting added finan- cial pressure on a theatre that already had thin mar- gins. "Without that constant flow of activity, it can be very, very difficult to sus- tain financial operations at an organization that was already sort of making it happen in an almost magi- cal way before the pandem- ic," Varteniuk said, adding that charitable status and strong bonds with funding organizations was key for the Registry. "We were able to secure enough funding to allow us to weather the storm, but that certainly has not been true across the board." Varteniuk says not mak- ing concrete plans -- out- side of the odd livestream and small-scale concert -- helped avoid the "heart- break and the stress of mul- tiple cancellations and re- scheduling." However, the theatre's dance residency finally moved forward in late July after more than six months of delays, with local danc- ers Nomi Wiersma and Tara Butler at the helm. "It's sort of like the post- er child for the pandemic experience here," Varteni- uk said of the residency. Country musician Nate Haller is something of a pandemic poster child him- self. The Waterloo-born sing- er debuted his first single, "Lightning in a Bottle," this past spring -- "definitely a weird time to release mu- sic," he admits. When COVID-19 first hit, he had to isolate with two roommates that also play music. That's when the pro- ject, which Haller had been working on for three to four years, really took off. "It kind of just happened because we had all this time," he said. Haller re- cently played his first big live show at the Calgary Stampede in July, after months of promoting on- line. He wasn't sure how lis- teners would respond, but he said "it blew my mind" to hear a crowd sing "Lighten- ing in a Bottle" back to him. He's now tuning up to play alongside Dean Brody and North Dumfries duo The Reklaws at Toronto's Budweiser Stage on Sept. 24. "That's a huge bucket- list item checked off for me. It's really only like my sec- ond real live show," he said, adding his family from around the GTA plan to be there to support him. "It's going to be unbelievable." Still, with COVID-19 un- certainty swirling, many artists plan to keep gigs to a minimum until it's safer to scale up. Osborne says he typical- ly plays events all across southern Ontario, but is still turning down some out-of-town inquiries for now. "I'm hesitant to go too far outside Waterloo Region," he said, adding he's chosen to focus on nursing and en- joying the rest of summe- r. "I don't think it's going to be for another year until we can really feel safe indoors playing for larger events. "I don't think we're quite out of it yet." STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With looser re- strictions on events and performances, The In- dependent wanted to find out what the last month has been like for local musicians and artists. NEWS Continued from page 1 Bagpipe musician Andrew Osborne says event inquiries are slowly picking up, but there's still a lot of uncertainty about postponed and cancelled bookings. Piper in the Burg photo 'I DON'T THINK WE'RE QUITE OUT OF IT YET'