Note: I didn’t have a camera this year at the festival, but I did have my little video camera. You may want to take some Dramamine before you view the above video. It’s a bit bouncy…
Ouch—I’m sporting an ukulele sunburn today. You know—it’s when your inner forearms are toasty pink all the way from where the sleeve on your Hawaiian shirt ends down to where your thumb starts. Oh, and peeking from today’s “work attire,” there’s a matching burnished red “V”, too, corresponding to the collar line of that same Hawaiian blouse.
While that sunburn is feeling pretty warm, what’s warmer still are the memories of a great ukulele weekend spent enjoying the Northern California Ukulele Festival (Hayward, CA).
You see, the unique pattern of that sunburn springs from spending several (happy!) hours in the sunshine, playing ukulele with friends old and new at the festival. We played, as one friend said, “every chord ever known,” as the sun shined down on us—hence a sunburn tattoo that is only on the skin surfaces exposed while strumming and chording. Can I say, “Ouch” one more time?
But it was more than worth it!
Especially wonderful was to see the re-birth of this granddaddy of all mainland ukulele festivals. After a year off in 2010 (due to budget issues), the volunteers did a major revamp of the festival’s undergirdings including different funding (‘doesn’t seem to be funded through adult education funds any longer so no more signing up as a “student” for the day) and a new location.
Now, I’ll admit to liking things that are “the same old, same old” and I’d always had a great time at the Hayward festival before so I was a bit predisposed to not fully appreciate the new setup. Boy, was I proven wrong. The change-y thing was definitely for the better in this case (no political statement implied or intended).
The new setting for the festival, Chabot Community College, is da best. No more arriving an hour early to get a parking space—there was plenty of parking (free for this event) and it was close enough to the festival venue on the campus that you could easily walk back to the car and drop off new purchases (Or get some sunscreen. So why didn’t I???).
Vendors—which included my friends from Kamaka, Nalu Ukulele, Tony Graziano Ukuleles and many more—were placed to encircle a grassy, tiered area and there was overhead coverage for them throughout the day. At the last venue for this festival, the sun’s shifting through the day would leave one side of the vendor area in total, blinding sun from about noon on…
Vendor sales looked brisk. You could purchase ukuleles—from factory-made to custom models, Hawaiian décor items, Hawaiian-themed jewelry, gifts, ukulele accessories including CDs and books and even fresh lei (make mine tuberose, please, for the bowl-you-over fragrance it carries on your shoulders throughout the day).
Hungry? How about Portuguese sausage over rice topped with a fried egg? Multi-colored shave ice? Fresh malasadas, coated with sugar and still warm? Or try the Hawaiian plate lunch featuring lau lau (I chose pork), lomi lomi salmon, tuna poke, a big scoop of rice, poi and, of course, mac salad. I’ll be powering through a few extra sessions on the rowing machine this week to make up for the indulging!
The auditorium and stage were perhaps the best improvements to this venerable festival, though. Chabot College provided a large stage with great lighting and an even better sound system. Every single performance, whether a solo or a collection of two dozen ukulele players, sounded clear all the way to the back of the room. The seating is theater style so it was mega-comfortable—a good thing since this festival featured 20 different ukulele groups, each performing for precisely 10 minutes.
The volunteers keep this program moving. It was like watching the breakers at Waikiki, one act swept in just on the tail of the previous one, producing a cascade of ukulele-centric musical waves, rolling on through the afternoon. The Side Order Band held the “save the best ‘til last” slot—and, as always, they didn’t disappoint.
But this festival is about more than vendors and performers—as the mission statement succinctly informs, their goal is “promoting and perpetuating the playing of ’ukulele music and culture.” What that translates to is simply the overriding feeling of aloha at this event. Whether you were a performer (there were over 350 of ‘em!), a vendor, an ukulele strummer or someone who simply wandered in to see what was happening, you couldn’t miss the genuine feeling that you were being welcomed as part of the ukulele ohana.
Won’t you join the family next year at the Northern California Ukulele Festival? The date’s already been set—April 1, 2012 (no foolin’) and the venue will again be Chabot College in Hayward.
My only advice—besides not missing it? Buy a ticket in advance by mail (they sold out early this year and if you arrived later in the day expecting to get in to the performances, you’d have missed out). Oh, and don’t forget your ukulele and the sunscreen…you never know how many friends you might meet out on the grass who’ll want to play ukulele for hours with you in the spring sunshine!
