Archives: Ukuleles of Paradise

[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.

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.

Jake Shimabukuro (with the accent on the “bu” part, if you’re curious), performed at Chico’s Laxson auditorium last night to a very appreciative crowd and I was on hand for the fun. I’ve been fortunate enough to hear most of the ukulele “greats” in live performances, but I’d never attended a concert by Jake (I also don’t have Herb Ohta on my “heard live” yet list—but maybe someday!). Before I set out for the drive down the hill to Chico I checked with friends on the Flea Market Music Board about what I should expect and, without exception, everyone who’d met him before commented not only about the great show he’d be sure to put on, but also about Jake’s humility and warmth with his fans. Frankly, I took that with a grain of salt—I mean, this guy is talented beyond imagine, he tours worldwide and he’s just, well, “famous.” How warm could he really be toward a total stranger (but, admittedly, a fellow ukulele enthusiast)?

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.