Date Set For 2018 Belfast Ukulele Festival

I guess it was about five years ago now, I bought my wife a ukulele for Christmas. It was totally on a whim. My wife didn't specifically have any musical experience to draw from, I just thought she might get a kick out of it. And it turned out I was right! She fell in love with it immediately.

She immediately began downloading tablature for simple songs she could teach herself how to play. It started with a couple simple Beatles tunes, and then a left turn into "Forget You" by Cee-Lo. But of course when she sings it, she uses the alternate lyrics that I can't remotely print here.

All in all, it was a great gift for her. To this day, I still get great pleasure out of sitting around a quiet house, with just the soft sounds of my wife plinking away on her uke.

To that point, we were thrilled to hear about the 5th Annual Belfast Ukulele Festival coming up on June 2nd. It's sponsored by Midcoast Ukes, Belfast Parks and Rec, and Our Town Belfast. It goes on most of the weekend, starting with a uke jam on Friday night where guests can enjoy some free pizza and meet this year's headlining act, Gerald Ross, at Searsport Shores Campground. Sign up ahead of time here.

There will also be workshops the next day for $15 a piece, that will feature all sorts of new learning experiences from beginner to advanced. Trust me, you are never too old to learn new tricks and hot lixx!

Then the big day gets underway Saturday at Steamboat Landing right on the bay in Belfast. Performances will go on all day starting at 10:00a.m., and go all day til 4:30p.m. Then later on, there will a lot of informal jamming back at the campground. The admission for the Festival is $5 per person.

So if you want to hear all the different ways these tiny little 4-stringed git-fiddles can be played, make some time in your schedule that day for some serious strumming and picking!