Finally a festival that happens on a SUNDAY!! Roy and Kathy Sakuma hosts this event every year and it seems to get bigger each year. There was a large crowd that covered all the available seats at the Kapiolani Park Band Stand area. I walked around a bit and managed to sneak my way to the patch of grass right in the front of the stage. There was not a speck of cloud in the sky and it was super hot, great weather for listening to ukulele music in the park and also another chance to practice shooting in manual setting. I got there near 1pm and saw Manoa DNA perform.
I was lucky to get a a shot as Roy and Kathy were enjoying the performance.
There were LOTS and LOTS of photogs..professionals w/ the festival as well as lots w/ point and shoot cameras as well as video.
Roy reminisce w/ his former student who's now part of Manoa DNA.
His current students also performed.
Roy introduced his friend and special guest James Ingram. There was a lot of friendship and respect the two showed each other.
When James performed "One Hundred Ways", the entire audience was silent listening to his beautiful voice.
There were SOO many cameras for his performance I had to grab this shot of just a few of them.
He was awesome and he even came off the stage to shake hands w/ the audience.
Aiden James performed in 2010 and someone had uploaded his performance to YouTube and he now has more than 15 million hits. It was cute that before he started his performance he gave a shout out to the person whom he's never met who uploaded his video. He was an awesome ukulele player.
There were so many talented performers who truly enjoy themselves as they express it thru their music.
Roy is remarkable person who shares his love of music with so many and especially the young. Listen to your what your children has to say, he tells us and let them express their thoughts and you'll be surprise what you'll find.
This group from Australia actually performed '"Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye on the ukulele.
Roy said Kathy had found Adrien Janiak's video on YouTube and actually wrote him an email to invite him to come..all the way from France! It was interesting to hear distinctively French sounding music played w/ a ukulele.
From Thailand is the last performer, Singto Namchok who sang a really cute song he wrote for his new wife. I can't believe that ukulele is gaining popularity in Thailand too. I wasn't able to stay for the grand finale..hopefully next year.
4 comments:
The event sounded really fun! Maybe I will try to check it out next year. I've always wanted to take ukulele lessons. I actually have a $600 ukulele still in the box!
Cool event! The photographers shot is so classic. Great job covering the event.
Nice Shun Wah. The event must've been HUGE. There were people wearing the Ukulele Festival T-shirt everywhere I went on that day.
I really like your 2nd, 3rd and 4th pictures - love their expressions.
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