That time of year

Hi, it's ukulele festival time again but this time I don't have my camera so it's just a couple of rubbish photos with my tablet.

Unfortunately, just getting out of Nottingham was a challenge with the front suspension on the car collapsing about a mile from where I was picked up. Hubby managed to get the car to the garage which was fortunately less than a mile away and they offered to lend us a car for the weekend. In the mean time I had caught the bus back to town and 20 minutes later he picked my up again from the same spot as earlier.  Talk about deja Vue !

The festival was really busy Friday night as the rain drove everyone inside. Saturday was dry and all the action was at the town hall. I did my usual thing of spending the afternoon crafting then enjoying the music in the evening.

And rejoined the the crowds in the theatre for the evening show.

We headed back home Sunday dinnertime after the big busk, I was tired as this had also been my first week working full time since last December and we were both feeling the effects of being away.

Nottingham Light Night

Today I have been having a turnout of stuff (again) this time it was clothes, 4 bags full for the charity shop, two bags of utter rubbish and a determination not to buy any new clothes this year!!

I need to go through my book collection soon, as I have probably several hundred mainly about textiles/craft/design etc. Not really sure how to sell any that are really interesting, any ideas??

Anyway, I didn't get round to posting photos from Nottingham Light night so here are one or two.

as usual, the ukulele club got in on the act as well :-)

Well, back to work, we have bags of campsite guides etc from the show yesterday to go through :-)

have a great weekend x

Uke Fest GB

Its taken a week but I think that we have now recovered from the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain which was held at the usual venue in Cheltenham.

There was plenty of beer, lots of ukes, 

 Some amazing artists

 a big busk with several hundred players

 and an open mic stage which proved to be too small for this group of uke lovers

I managed to make new friends and weave a mandolin strap during the weekend

I even managed to find a video on you-tube......look out for the lady holding the drop spindle in the opening scenes !
This is the third time that we have been to this festival and this was the best one so far!!

Uke-ing around...

I know I've not posted for a few weeks but I will probably make up for it over the next few days! Last weekend saw us in Cheltenham for the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain 2013. This is becoming part of our annual calender and we make more friend each time we go. The Festival starts on the Friday night at a local pub with people moving from group to group joining in playing and singing songs. Its also a good place to spot your friends and catch up on the gossip.

Saturday started with hubby attending a workshop at the town hall so I blagged my way in as well and set up my spinning wheel and settled down for a day of spinning. The concert in the main hall started at 1 oclock so I was able to easily spin and listen to the music.

I took time out to visit the music stalls although there were some interesting ukes there, I found out a while ago that it really isn't an instrument that I want to play.

 But this one looks like fun!!

One bobbin of yarn later and we headed back to the hotel to drop off the wheel and the ukes, then into town for a meal with some of the Nottingham Ukulele group and back to the town hall to catch up with the evenings acts.Not many photos of the evening acts, there were signs saying no photos but I don't think these two will cause any problems.

Sunday morning saw people gathering for the BIG BUSK in the centre of Cheltenham, some interesting caracters turned up and Sam Brown joined in on the balcony.

The afternoon was spent back at the pub with an open mic session with a lot of audience participation.

And I will leave you with some music from this guy, my own vid doesn't want to play properly though

 

Ukulele Uff and Lonesome Dave

UkeFest Cont'd

So , you thought it all finished on the Saturday night?Wrong!! Sunday morning saw the massed ranks of ukulele players gathering in the centre of Cheltenham. A definite show stopper!

 see the three rather brightly coloured peeps? they are part of the Nottingham Ukulele Orchestra contingent, spot the union flag uke and and my other half in his deadhead T shirt :-)

 loved the fact that the major wore his chain of office over a zip up fleece and bought his own ukulele!

A lamppost makes a good music stand for these youngsters!!

The celebrations continued on into the afternoon with burgers, beer, stalls and an open mic session at the designated pub in spite of the torrential rain....yes we were all outside hiding in gazebos.

The one thing that I did notice was that most of the acts were mingling with the crowd and we spoke to Manitoba Hal as he stood in the line for the burgers and mentioned that we hadn't seem him at the big busk earlier. No, he said he'd been helping out getting everything set up for the afternoon, no big egos on these guys, just down to earth and friendly.

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend xx

Ukulele Festival of Great Britain...

Ukulele Festival of Great Britain...Yes thats why we were in Cheltenham over the bank holiday. I had intended this post to go up a bit sooner but I was quickly felled by a yucky sickness bug that I am still getting over so this has been written, a little at a time over the last week or so.

Anyway, we were in Cheltenham to attend our very first Ukulele Fest, ok, I know I don't play but the man himself does so I agreed to go as long as I could take my own toys..hehe . Cheltenham was all dressed up ready for the Jubilee celebrations, bunting accross the streets, union flags in the shop windows, red white and blue just about everywhere.

We arrived late on the Friday night but still managed to grab a drink and a uke down at the designated festival pub before retiring for a good nights sleep .

By morning we were intent on finding our way to the Cheltenham Town Hall to meet the other musicians and have a wander round the stalls.

To say that there were ukes of all shapes and sizes was not really an exaggeration!! These are just a few of the ones on offer!!
During the afternoon there were performances in the theatre and workshops running in the other rooms, as Ian was taking a workshop with Manitoba Hal I made myself comfy in the cafe area where I could hear what was happening in the theatre and do a little people watching. You could tell who had just been in a workshop as they would sit and go over and over the same technique until they had got it nailed.
Did I mention that I took my own toys? of course! as usual I had a few people watching me as well as I sat in the corner with my spinning wheel. Usual question was why bring it to a uke fest..answer I don't play uke :-) certainly provided interest for many of them.

 The wheel was returned to the hotel late afternoon with a decent amount of merino/silk on the bobbin and we headed back to grab a meal and find seats for the evening concert with the other members of the Nottingham Ukulele Orchestra.

 The theatre was dressed for the occasion

 amongst the many acts appearing were the re-entrants who this time played a selection of rock classics although I sort of wish they had played Lady Gaga as well.


I had had chance to speak to one of the guys in the afternoon....yes they both remembered me from a gig on Nottingham where the sight of me spinning on a drop spindle sort of brought things to a halt!!that gig had turned into a long night out chatting to them before and after the show.

This is Manitoba Hal who lead the Blues workshop in the afternoon.

 

And these are The Hot Potato Syncopators...this video is by our very own BikerTed


The finale seemed to involve throwing a lot of paper aeroplanes around !!

to be continued!