As an attendee at 15 ukulele festivals and workshops in the past few years (from Rhode Island to the Big Island), I can guarantee that, if you play ukulele—no matter what level player you are—the Southern California Ukulele Festival should be a “don’t miss it” event on your lifetime list.What follows is a lengthy account (to make *you* want to attend an ukulele festival, too!); if you’d rather just skip to the album of photos, click HERE! Note: There are more photos in the album than I’ve included on this page so browse around—I can’t figure out how to get captions in the album so you’ll have to look at the name of the .jpg when you’ve opened it and read “who” is in the photo up in the URL bar.
This festival, although only one day long (plus a Friday night of performances by local ukulele clubs) featured 55 (!) workshops ranging from classes perfect for “absolutely beginner” ukulele players to slack key guitar, hula, Hawaiian steel guitar and arts and crafts. Add in the ongoing concerts on the stage (with the likes of Victoria Vox, Dan Sawyer, Fred Thompson and others), dozens of vendors (with ukulele of every maker, size and price range) and the evening concert with “top name” ukulele players and you have one incredible event. Your only problem is getting enough rest ahead of time so you can take it all in! Of course, don’t forget the after-concert jamming until 1:15 am at the Cerritos Sheraton, too…The cost for all this (including the luau)? Only $45. Really!
I arrived early at the Cerritos Park East Community Center and vendors were just setting up their awnings and bringing out their wares. MusicGuyMic brought so many ukulele that he was still unpacking his koa delights well after the morning’s first workshop started at 9:15. Lots of lookers (and buyers) seemed to be finding their dream ukulele at Mike’s booth; just think of Keli’i, Kanilea, Koaloha, Bugsgear, and G-String instruments all in one friendly place! Bruddah Mark had a booth with oodles of “Got Uke?” gear as well as a place to jam throughout the day; the amp he demonstrated seemed really great (but who’d want to hear my playing amped??) and drew a lot of interest throughout the day.Mike DaSilva had a carbon fiber (is that how you spell it?) ukulele that generated lots of interest, in addition to his beautifully-crafted “usual” instruments; he and Marko were kind enough to outfit my LoPrinzi soprano with new strings (at the suggestion of Hoaryhead who advised me that after four years it was definitely time to try new strings). Thanks, guys, my little LoPrinzi sounds even better now!
The wealth of workshops throughout the day poses a dilemma at SCUF. Each year at SCUF I love the workshops but also regret not playing more for fun. This year in addition to taking Shirley Orlando’s “Adding Pizzazz” workshop (she’s an incredible teacher–‘wish I lived closer so I could take a few lessons and participate in her activities at Island Bazaar), I attended Bryan Tolentino and Asa Young’s “Hawaiian-Style Ukulele” class as well as Benny Chong’s finger-stretching “What you need to be a ‘good’ ukulele player” workshop. Then, to add some more fun to my day, I made new friends and hung out with Uncle Henry Kamae under the trees outside where one of his morning workshops featured a variety of hapa haole tunes. Uncle Henry’s uncle was Eddie Kamae so he must come by his great playing genetically–adding in his own sincere aloha and welcoming spirit for all players, new or advanced.
Cynthia and Andy, who are members of Ukuleles of Paradise, traveled down to Cerritos for the day and I spotted Cynthia putting down her Flea and spending one workshop learning hula basics. She danced “E Huli Makou”–a song our group had just played for the first time in September. We’re waiting for her to present the dance to us at an upcoming meeting.Throughout the day I met up with friends from various ukulele boards and previous festivals. These included Hoaryhead, Dominator (who was rightfully proud of the Dom-made ukulele being toted by Hoaryhead and winning praise from top ukulele collectors), Honukani and Mrs. Honukani, Marko and Mrs. Marko (who traveled all the way from Nebraska), Preston (from Utah), old smelly bob (just a smile from him and you can tell he likes ukulele—check out the gold inlay on his tooth), Peter, Bryan Tolentino, Asa Young and Ralph Shaw. I spotted Soybean once in passing, but never caught up with him during the day… Byron Yasui seemed as if he was suffering with a bit of a cold—but his warm personality belied the discomfort I’ll bet he was in.I’d signed up for the luau that evening just because I wanted to make sure I had good seats for the concert which followed—I’m not that much “into” buffet food offerings. I was pleasantly surprised, though, the eats were really tasty and served up by gracious, hard-working volunteers whose smiles were bigger than the plates that the kalua pork, salad, fruit, rice and adobo chicken were served up on. The evening’s entertainment continued the top-notch reputation of SCUF, with Bill Tapia, Ralph Shaw, Benny Chong, Byron Yasui and Bryan Tolentino. The only bad thing about the evening was the air conditioning in the hall, which felt more like Alaskan temperatures than Hawaii—‘good thing I’d purchased a “GCEA University” hoodie from Bryan earlier in the day; it kept me warm until the last lovely ukulele sounds as the concert ended just after 10 pm.
But wait—that’s not all. A group of us continued the night’s fun by gathering at the bar at the Sheraton Cerritos for some jamming. We closed out the bar at midnight (what bar closes at midnight???) and were told we could continue playing the lobby—which we did. There was some great playing that night but I’d say that Dominator and BruddahMark were the hits, playing “off” each other on tune after tune (I just kept up rhythm with open position chords and they graciously made me feel I was part of the playing anyway). Even my Dad, who doesn’t play ukulele (but loves it anyway) enjoyed the post-concert playing (and supplied me with a pinot grigio at the bar to keep the strumming going); we didn’t leave until 1:15 am.
But the Southern California weekend for me didn’t stop with SCUF. I added 18 holes of golf with Dad at Birch Hills (thanks for the 35 cents in winnings, Dad), shopping with Mom and tutoring them both a bit on their respective Mac computers. As I readied to leave for home on Monday morning, Mom made me a gift of the only blooming tuberose remaining in her yard (she specializes in Hawaiian flowers and plants); the flower accompanied me on the flight back home and rewarded me with fragrance the rest of the week at the office. What could be a nicer way to finish up a great ukulele weekend?
