40th Annual Ukulele Festival

Wherever you turn you see kids clutching ukuleles, as the sun smiles above the monkeypod trees that shade Kapiolani Park. Five year olds barely twice the size of their ukes, 10 year olds with knobby knees, gangly12 year olds and teen-agers with braces practicing their chords. $0It’s Sunday in July and a musician from Hilo is in mid-tune at the annual Ukulele Festival that draws several thousand music lovers to Waikiki each summer. From their seats on the grass, the audience whoops and whistles at his rousing rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever.” They roar with approval when he segues into the familiar chords of “Hilo March.”  For the next 3 hours internationally known musicians, local celebrities, talented ukulele players from around the world and an ukulele orchestra of 800 students from 5 to 85 will take the stage at Kapiolani Bandstand and delight the crowd. They’ll perform Hawaiian, oldies, pop, reggae, jazz, country, rock, classical – tunes that you never imagined could be played on the ukulele.   You’ll hear the “William Tell Overture,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “Wipe Out,” even the theme from “Star Wars.”  For over 30 decades, Roy Sakuma has spread the joy of the ukulele, teaching students and promoting the Ukulele Festival.  It is by far the largest of its kind in the world, boasting crowds of thousands, and an ukulele orchestra of 800 students, mostly kids..  The Ukulele Festival is now a summer tradition.  Families jam the park. Ukulele fans wouldn’t miss it. Tourists follow the sounds of music.