Ukulele Festival 2017, Torrance

Cher, Natalie and Cali. LOVE Cher's and Natalie's Mother/Daughter MuuMuus!

We had a GREAT time at the Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center this past weekend. This is the MOST crowded I have seen the festival. I arrived early and the parking lot was packed! 

There were more vendors than ever before, hawking some very cool ukuleles, island apparel, jewelry, CDs, songbooks, shave ice and more! 

Oil Can Ukuleles. Photo by Daily Breeze

It was great running into so many of my uke friends! There were too many classes that I wanted to attend all at the SAME time, so I had to pick and choose wisely. I'm so glad I attended Lil' Rev's "Intros and Endings" workshop. I can't wait to apply what I learned to my song list! He is such a great teacher, even to a large group of people. After reading his bio, I found out that he is a trained music educator! No wonder he was so patient with us.

Lil' Rev. Photo by Daily Breeze

Natalie, Cher and 150 of our close uke friends at the Lil' Rev Workshop

After workshop we meandered into the main concert plaza to catch Cynthia Lin's and Ukulenny's concert. They were joined on stage by Abe Lagrimas. Very fun set with plenty of virtuoso picking!

Ukulenny, Cynthia Lin and Abe Lagrimas

I was looking for lunch after seeing Cynthia's set. Natalie and Cher wandered into another workshop. Lunch was not easy to obtain. Plate lunches were being served inside the Arts Center, there were two food trucks and a hot dog cart in the parking lot. All had extremely LONG lines. I stood in line for a hot dog for awhile and the line did not move. I ended up just getting a drink at a vending machine and going to my next workshop. Next year, I'll bring my own lunch!

My second workshop of the day was with L.A. musician Fred Sokolow. This workshop was called "Blues for Ukulele." We went over some basic 12-bar blues solo charts and played some tunes. THEN, we took out our slides, re-tuned and practiced playing SLIDE UKULELE. So much fun! 

Fred Sokolow

I definitely need to practice, but I can see that this is a great trick to add to my repertoire. I sat next to Susanna at this workshop. She's an excellent player and teacher. I picked up a few extra tips just by sitting next to her!

Susanna and Ellen

I wandered around after class and snapped a few shots of all of the gorgeous ukuleles for sale.

The Hula Class was well-attended!

I listened to a few more players in the concert area, then I decided to leave after a long and fun-filled ukulele day!

Ukulele Ladies in their Hawaiian Wear