2022 Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival (2024)

It's back!!!! www.losangelesukulelefestival.com Check out the highlights video from the last festival:
This year's artist lineup: Brittni Paiva, Andrew Molina, Abe Lagrimas, Neal Chin, Victoria Vox, John Atkins, Bakithi Kumalo, Alissa Hunicutt, Jenifer Cabrera, Bernadette Plazola, Marlowe

September 23

September 24: All-day activities, workshops and performance at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center
All-access general admission is only $47 and includes unlimited workshops (classes for all ability levels) and all-day performances from the best and the brightest ukulele talent on the planet.
Ukulele marketplace is free and open to the public and there will be food and shave ice available

September 25: Ohana Family Sunday at the Grand Annex (tickets on sale soon)

man0a said:

Does the $47 price cover all 3 days? Sounds like a bargain.

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No, that's for the all-day workshops and performances on the 24th - still a bargain you won't find anywhere else!

mitchchang said:

It's back!!!! www.losangelesukulelefestival.com Check out the highlights video from the last festival:
This year's artist lineup: Brittni Paiva, Andrew Molina, Abe Lagrimas, Neal Chin, Victoria Vox, John Atkins, Bakithi Kumalo, Alissa Hunicutt, Jenifer Cabrera, Bernadette Plazola, Marlowe

September 23

: Evening concert with Brittni Paiva and Andrew Molina

September 24: All-day activities, workshops and performance at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center
All-access general admission is only $47 and includes unlimited workshops (classes for all ability levels) and all-day performances from the best and the brightest ukulele talent on the planet.
Ukulele marketplace is free and open to the public and there will be food and shave ice available

September 25: Ohana Family Sunday at the Grand Annex (tickets on sale soon)

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Thanks so much for posting this! I would never have known about it otherwise. I just purchased my tickets! Yay! I'm so looking forward to this!

Ila said:

Thanks so much for posting this! I would never have known about it otherwise. I just purchased my tickets! Yay! I'm so looking forward to this!

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Awesome, thank you so much!!!

Ticket link for the festival: www.kalakoa.tix.com

mitchchang said:

I'm thinking of setting up a booth where festival attendees can drop off "gently used" ukuleles to be donated to ____? Any suggestions? Preferably an organization local to Los Angeles/South Bay since I'll probably be the one to do the transporting (unless someone else is interested in volunteering). Please chime in with your recommendations!

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I can recommend you donate them to my elementary school classroom! I teach in South Central L.A., in Watts, to be precise. The children would go BONKERS. They'd LOVE IT and frankly, so would I, to bring that kind of joy to these children. PM me if you want more information. Regardless of who you donate the ukes to, it's a BRILLIANT idea. (And since I'll be there anyway, you won't have to do any transporting!)

Ila said:

I can recommend you donate them to my elementary school classroom! I teach in South Central L.A., in Watts, to be precise. The children would go BONKERS. They'd LOVE IT and frankly, so would I, to bring that kind of joy to these children. PM me if you want more information. Regardless of who you donate the ukes to, it's a BRILLIANT idea. (And since I'll be there anyway, you won't have to do any transporting!)

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I should have said that this is what I'm looking for - a specific organization with a specific point of contact person. Will definitely put you down, thank you for responding!

mitchchang said:

I'm thinking of setting up a booth where festival attendees can drop off "gently used" ukuleles to be donated to ____? Any suggestions? Preferably an organization local to Los Angeles/South Bay since I'll probably be the one to do the transporting (unless someone else is interested in volunteering). Please chime in with your recommendations!

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You might try to contact the LA public library to see if they accept donations for their ukulele program. I don't know who runs the program, but Marc Horton is listed the original grant application. https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-libraries/copycat-grants/uke-can-do-it/

wykhuh said:

You might try to contact the LA public library to see if they accept donations for their ukulele program. I don't know who runs the program, but Marc Horton is listed the original grant application. https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-libraries/copycat-grants/uke-can-do-it/

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good idea - Marc was at the last festival, I just hit him up. Hope he's still working there

Check it out - 2022 Festival T-shirts, I hope you like 'em! Please do me a favor and click here to let me know your color/size preference so we can get an idea of what to have available. Mahalo to Hawaiian Island Creations for their collaboration! These will only be available at the festival

mitchchang said:

Check it out - 2022 Festival T-shirts, I hope you like 'em! Please do me a favor and click here to let me know your color/size preference so we can get an idea of what to have available. Mahalo to Hawaiian Island Creations for their collaboration! These will only be available at the festival

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I like the grey in large.

rainbow21 said:

Mitch, are you using this for a generalized poll for everyone to offer their preference or for those that are actually signing up and might purchase one?

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preferably only for those who would actually purchase one at the event

Anyone out there following Bernadette Teaches Music? If you're still somewhere in the Beginner/Confident Beginner learning stage, I highly recommend her channel. 431,000 subscribers so she must be doing something right So happy to have her back at the festival this year, check out the video blog recap she posted after the 2019 festival, so cute! Tickets & info for 2022 festival: www.losangelesukulelefestival.com

It's funny how things fall into place sometimes... I was living in Japan when I started this channel, so whenever I saw pictures and videos of people sharing time together at ukulele festivals, I felt left out! The ukulele wasn't as popular in Okinawa (where I lived at the time), and so many fun events seemed to take place in my home state (California). When I moved back to California in June, I was ecstatic because I knew that I would finally be able to attend ukulele events and meet my online uku friends. I wasted no time after moving and bought my tickets to attend the LA Uke Fest. A few weeks later I was introduced to Mitch, the organizer of the event, and was asked to lead a workshop at the festival. When Mitch first asked, I was tempted to turn down the offer to teach the workshop because I was SO AFRAID that I wouldn't know what to do. How could I lead a workshop at such an important and well-attended event? Even though I "felt" like saying no, I agreed to lead a workshop because this year I have been pushing myself to say yes more often. Once I had agreed up to lead the workshop, I started FREAKING OUT. What was I going to do at a workshop?! What was I going to teach?! Would there be a whiteboard for me to draw on? Would anyone show up? All of these questions and doubts started entering my mind. Fast forward to the day of the event. My friends are all there and have agreed to support me by attending the workshop. Timmy was playing background music, Angel was taking photos and video, Abby had agreed to help teach anyone who needed help, and Ricky was there to help teach as well. A few minutes before the workshop was scheduled to start, my classroom was pretty much empty. There were MAYBE 5 people in there. For a few minutes I thought... "no one wants to come to this workshop." Then, all of a sudden, a HUGE crowd of people comes into the room. All of the chairs start filling up. Apparently, there had been a strum-along scheduled right before my workshop and many people went to it. Once the strum-along was done, people went to the workshops they wanted to attend. My workshop filled up! All of the seats were taken and there were people standing up. People stayed through the entire workshop and even hung out at the end of the workshop to chat. It was incredible. This video does not do the event justice. If you have ever thought about going to a uke fest, but felt intimidated by it, don't let that stop you! If I had let my negative thoughts have the best of me, I would not have attended and would have missed out on one of the best days of career. Trust me on this one, just go!!!