{"id":265,"date":"2011-04-04T22:18:16","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T05:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/?p=265"},"modified":"2013-03-02T16:09:53","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T23:09:53","slug":"change-can-be-good-2011-northern-california-ukulele-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/change-can-be-good-2011-northern-california-ukulele-festival","title":{"rendered":"Change can be good: 2011 Northern California Ukulele Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: I didn’t have a camera this year at the festival, but I did have my little video camera. You may want to<\/em> take some Dramamine before you view the above video. It’s a bit bouncy…<\/em><\/p>\n

Ouch\u2014I\u2019m sporting an ukulele sunburn today. You know\u2014it\u2019s 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\u2019s \u201cwork attire,\u201d there\u2019s a matching burnished red \u201cV\u201d, too, corresponding to the collar line of that same Hawaiian blouse.<\/p>\n

While that sunburn is feeling pretty warm, what\u2019s warmer still are the memories of a great ukulele weekend spent enjoying the Northern California Ukulele Festival<\/a> (Hayward, CA).<\/p>\n

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, \u201cevery chord ever known,\u201d as the sun shined down on us\u2014hence a sunburn tattoo that is only on the skin surfaces exposed while strumming and chording. Can I say, \u201cOuch\u201d one more time?<\/p>\n

But it was more than worth it!<\/p>\n

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\u2019s undergirdings including different funding (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdoesn\u2019t seem to be funded through adult education funds any longer so no more signing up as a \u201cstudent\u201d for the day) and a new location.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ll admit to liking things that are \u201cthe same old, same old\u201d and I\u2019d 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).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"The new setting for the festival, Chabot Community College, is da best. No more arriving an hour early to get a parking space\u2014there 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\u2019t I???).<\/p>\n

Vendors\u2014which included my friends from Kamaka<\/a>, Nalu Ukulele<\/a>, Tony Graziano Ukuleles<\/a> and many more\u2014were 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\u2019s shifting through the day would leave one side of the vendor area in total, blinding sun from about noon on\u2026<\/p>\n

Vendor sales looked brisk. You could purchase ukuleles\u2014from factory-made to custom models, Hawaiian d\u00c3\u00a9cor 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).<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll be powering through a few extra sessions on the rowing machine this week to make up for the indulging!<\/p>\n

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\u2014a good thing since this festival featured 20 different ukulele groups, each performing for precisely 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

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 \u201csave the best \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctil last\u201d slot\u2014and, as always, they didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

But this festival is about more than vendors and performers\u2014as the mission statement succinctly informs, their goal is \u201cpromoting and perpetuating the playing of \u2019ukulele music and culture.\u201d What that translates to is simply the overriding feeling of aloha at this event. Whether you were a performer (there were over 350 of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem!), a vendor, an ukulele strummer or someone who simply wandered in to see what was happening, you couldn\u2019t miss the genuine feeling that you were being welcomed as part of the ukulele ohana.<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t you join the family next year at the Northern California Ukulele Festival? The date\u2019s already been set\u2014April 1, 2012 (no foolin\u2019) and the venue will again be Chabot College in Hayward.<\/p>\n

My only advice\u2014besides 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\u2019d have missed out). Oh, and don\u2019t forget your ukulele and the sunscreen\u2026you never know how many friends you might meet out on the grass who\u2019ll want to play ukulele for hours with you in the spring sunshine!
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2014I\u2019m sporting an ukulele sunburn today. You know\u2014it\u2019s when your inner forearms are toasty pink all the way from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,1,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-hawaii_travels","category-personal","category-ukulele-festivals","category-ukuleles-of-paradise","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Wqkt-4h","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}