Ukulele Tonya

[Note: I wrote this the Monday after returning from the Tahoe Area Ukulele Fest, but it’s taken me until now to get the photos sorted and this posted. If you want to skip the description and go straight to the photo gallery (with more than two dozen photos), go here.

The past few days drained my sleep budget, but I’m not lamenting my recent loss of shut-eye at all.

That’s because I’ve had a good reason for not putting in more pillow time: I’ve been at the Second Annual Tahoe Area Ukulele Festival. For a confirmed uke fest-aholic like me, a festival means squeezing in as much ukulele talk, playing, learning and listening as possible—and this festival experience was no different!

While I only spent one night at the hotel (ninth floor, East Tower—overlooking I-80. Note to self: request the other side of the building next year), I think I was only in the room for 10 minutes to drop off my bag on Friday afternoon, and then hit the pillows from 2:15 to 8:45 am in the wee hours of Saturday. Golly, I snagged a great room rate, but on a per-minute-spent basis, I’ve certainly had better deals.

But I’m not complaining! Where else could you listen to ukulele greats like James Hill, Aldrine Guerrero, Brittni Paiva, Michael Powers, Dominator and Matt Dahlberg all in one 24-hour period? And that doesn’t include workshops, the chance to play ukuleles of every type and price range and oodles of uke-centric conversations with four-stringer friends new and old.

I’m lucky enough to be able to attend a good number of ukulele festivals (chalk it up to a very understanding husband and being self-employed—at least when I’m working those 14-hour days I can look forward to something fun like a festival) but I know lots of folks who read this aren’t as fortunate as I. Consider this, then your very own whirlwind tour of the Tahoe Area Ukulele Festival. Buckle up and let’s go! (Read on …)