FERGUS – Peter Hammel isn’t packing away his bagpipes for good, but he did give his last pandemic performance on April 2.
The Fergus resident started playing his bagpipes outside his home as a way to honour frontline workers when the pandemic rolled into Canada.
While people were banging pots and pans around 7pm, he started playing his pipes, and he’s done so every night except Tuesdays and Wednesdays since March 2020.
Tuesdays and Wednedays are the nights he practices with the Guelph Pipe Band.
“The mandates have been lifted and it seems like the right time to stop it,” he said in a phone interview.
“We’re moving on.”
Hummel said he has a lot of friends who work in healthcare and felt it was important that they were recognized.
“They are real heroes,” he said. “They put themselves at risk.”
He livestreamed his performances and was dumbstruck to realize they had been forwarded to frontline workers in other parts of the country as well.
“I thought the only people who saw it were in this community but they were being shared all over the place. It’s jaw-dropping,” he said.
Hummel said all the practice helped him improve as a player and he took part in several online competitions and even won a few.
The mini-concerts also attracted his neighbours, and there was a regular bunch who listened to him every night.
His last performance was April 2 and about 20 people came out to hear him.
“Last night was the first night I didn’t play,” he said on April 5. “I still went out and saw people. We’re a tight group now.”
