Ukulele Festival Hawaii’s mission is to bring laughter, love and hope to children and
adults throughout Hawaii and the world through the music of the ukulele.
We are incredibly excited about our Virtual Live Stream, April 11th Local Spotlight! A huge
thank you to
Hawaiian Host
for being our Title Sponsor for Ukulele Festival Hawaii’s
51st festival year.
Please make sure to subscribe to our
Official Festival Youtube Channel,
and join us, April
11th, 9AM to 2:30PM HST. If you would like more information for all of the Virtual Events
for the 51st Ukulele Festival Hawaii, please
CLICK HERE.
Below is the schedule for our April
11th event, you won’t want to miss!
Roy and Kathy Sakuma have dedicated their life’s work to spreading the joy of the ukulele
through lessons, festivals and community events. In 2004, they established
Ukulele Festival Hawaii,
a non-profit 501(C) (3) organization, to bring laughter, love and hope to everyone through
the ukulele.
In 1971, at a time when very few people were interested in the ukulele, Roy Sakuma
organized the 1st Annual Ukulele Festival. It was Sakuma’s dream to present a free concert
to show people that the ukulele could be played as a solo instrument of sophistication
and virtuosity and not just a rhythm instrument for background music.
Today, the annual Ukulele Festival at Kapiolani Park Bandstand in Waikiki is now a summer
tradition in Hawaii. It has grown internationally and is by far the largest ukulele
festival of its kind in the world, with crowds of thousands, guest artists from around
the world and an ukulele orchestra of over 800 students, mostly children.
In response to popular demand and the ukulele renaissance in Hawaii and throughout the
world, Ukulele Festival Hawaii with the support of sponsors
has taken the ukulele festivals on the road to the islands of Hawaii (Waikoloa), Kauai
and Maui.
Grammy Award-winning national pop artist James Ingram has been a frequent guest at the
ukulele festival since 1994 when he and Roy met by chance while exercising on the tracks
of the University of Hawaii. James Ingram, who has 6 children of his own, was so taken by
the concept of the Ukulele Festival whose main stars are the 800 children. They quickly
became friends and in 2004, James Ingram and Roy Sakuma composed the theme song
“Come and Join Us” for Ukulele Festival Hawaii. The Hawaii Music Awards honored it
with the “Single of the Year.”
“Come and join us at the Ukulele Festival where the magic is in the music and the
love that we share...”