Aloha and Happy Monday! Has everyone recovered from all of the ukulele awesomeness that took place at this year’s Utah Ukulele Festival in Logan, Utah over the weekend? We are still in recovery mode, but we sure had a blast!
We want to send out a big mahalo to everyone who came out and enjoyed the beautiful weather with us. It was great to see so many familiar faces along with having the opportunity to meet so many new attendees. Thank you for once again allowing us to share our love of the ukulele and Hawaiian culture with you.
We would also like to take this time to thank everyone who was involved in making this year’s Utah Ukulele Festival a reality.
A huge mahalo to our sponsors: Ohana Ukuleles who graciously sponsored our headliner, multi-grammy award winner Daniel Ho. KSM Music who year after year have been there for us with all of our sound equipment needs, prizes for the Open Mic Competition, and more. Kala Brand Music Co., KoAloha, and Luna Guitars who provided ukuleles for the Open Mic Competition and give aways. Ukulele Underground who, once again, provided many awesome items in the swag bags for the Open Mic Competition. MiSi who also provided a great prize for the give away. Aquila who provided some awesome strings for Open Mic participants. Our local sponsors: Camp Chef who once again helped to make this event free and offered up a great give away box full of awesome camping goodies. Bridger Folk Music Society for helping once again to help keep our event free to the public. Big Kahuna Development Studio for supporting our vision of keeping the event free and helping to share a bit of Aloha Spirit. A HUGE mahalo nui loa to you all!!!
We would also like to thank our fun instructors: Lynn Toone (beginner lessons), Kwan Ki Au (Tahitian/Inter./Adv. lessons), and Daniel Ho (Pineapple Mango all ages). All instructors offer their skills and services free of charge. We cannot put on this event without you. Mahalo!!!
Mahalo nui to all of our wonderful performers who took time out of their busy schedules to come out and share their love of the ukulele and culture of Hawaii with everyone: The McFarlands, UUF students, Merinda Young, Hannah Spencer, and Kili Gardner.
We would also like to send out a great big MAHALO to E. Ka’ipo Rokobuludrau and the Halau ‘O Ka’ipolani for traveling all the way up from Lehi to put on an amazing cultural performance and sharing a bit of Aloha and love for Polynesia with all who attended. We hope to see you back again next year! <3
We would also like to thank our volunteers: Jon Manoa, Kate Schmicker, Dave and Becky Meyer (who drove all the way from Idaho), and Melissa Matthias. You all showed up, worked hard, and helped to make this event a great success. We thank you all for your time and hard work, and hope to see you again at future events.
We would also like to thank all of the participants of this year’s Utah Ukulele Festival Open Mic Competition (good thing this isn’t an award ceremony or I’d be played off the stage by the orchestra before they went to a commercial Hahaha! 😉 ): It takes a great deal of courage to perform on stage in front of a large audience. I was personally so impressed with everyone this year. Each person seemed to possess nerves of steel, something that makes me a bit envious. They all got up on stage and performed with what looked like a great deal of ease and grace. So many comments were made about all of the wonderful talent that exists here in Northern Utah. We are thankful we had the opportunity to help showcase this talent while being able to enjoy the amazing music. Mahalo once again for taking part in the Open Mic Competition. We hope to see you all again next year. Keep up the great work! 😎
O.k. Almost done. 😀 We, of course, want to send out a great big mahalo nui loa to Daniel Ho and his beautiful wife Lydia for traveling all the way from California and bringing a bit of Aloha Spirit with them. We had the opportunity to spend a little time with them Friday night, and I have to say how down to earth and fun they both are. We are so grateful to each of them for their time and effort that they put in to their craft. Daniel put on an amazing and fun show, and his workshop was packed full of enthusiastic participants. We hope that everyone enjoyed his wonderful personality and soaked up his ukulele awesomeness. Once again, mahalo nui loa to Daniel and Lydia for coming out to Logan and providing us with a bit of Paradise in beautiful Cache Valley.
Lastly, yes, I promise, I’m almost done ( 😀 ) we want to send out huge hugs of thanks to our friends and family that have supported us through it all. Thank you for taking the time to share UUF with everyone you know and offering up your help when needed. We are so grateful for all of the help and support we receive each and every year. We love you all! <3
And once again, we want to thank each and everyone who came out to take in all of the fun that takes place at the Utah Ukulele Festival. Thank you to the wonderful vendors/concessions that came out to be a part of our event. We can never predict what the attendance will be like from year to year, or what the crowd will be looking for, but we truly appreciate your time in helping to make this event a success! 🙂 We truly love putting on this event each year, and we hope that our love comes across in every way.
Mahalo nui loa Everyone!!! We hope to see you out at next year’s Utah Ukulele Festival!!! *Event photos to come soon.
