One of the smallest musical instruments in the world, ukuleles are considered to be the friendliest instruments to learn music for children and complete beginners. To learn more about this instrument that plays calming music, there is a special, one of a kind festival, happening right here in Goa. Mahalo Goa Ukulele Festival will be held on February 18 and 19 at Saraya Ecostay, Sangolda. The festival is organised by Christina Fernandes, who uses the ukulele in her nature education session and yoga classes which she calls Yogalele and Anirban Halder, a self-taught musician who performs with his band, Electric Pulse, and their aim for the festival is to celebrate music and share the love and joy.
The two day festival is filled with workshops, performances and open mics. Speaking about the response to the festival over the years, Christina says, “We have had an increase in registrations and enquiries and also a big boost in engagement on our social media with lots of people commenting and sharing. There are more and more people picking up the ukulele. It’s a pretty non-intimidating instrument and it’s relatively easy to learn some simple chords and start strumming and singing. So it’s getting ever more popular. It’s also a very happy instrument that spreads good vibes, which adds to its popularity.”
Mother of Keaton, Aliya and Lucia, it was their motivation to learn the ukulele that made Christina interested in the idea of organising a festival that brought different artistes together. “All of them will be playing at the festival and Keaton and Aliya will be teaching workshops as well,” she adds.
On February 18, the festival will commence from 4 pm with an open mic session followed by a dance workshop at 5.30 pm and a performance by Strum Away Collective at 6.30 pm. From 7.15 pm onwards, different artistes will take the stage including Tabhita Kagoo, Keshvi Rainka, Neptune Chapotin and Vidushi Gupta, Big Whiskers, Aisha Ashok and Akshay Chowdhry.
On February 19, the day will begin with workshops like Yogalele at 10 am followed by kids ukulele, rangoli, Indian contemporary dance, cookie tin ukulele making, vocal functional training, introduction to ukulele, brush lettering for kids, song writing, fundamentals of mouth harp, 7th Heaven: A Jazz Ukulele Prier and performances by Goa Jazz Academy students at 1 pm and by Aakash Dhingra at 6.15 pm. The festival will condlue with live perofmances from 7 pm onwards by Manuka, Christina Fernandes and Kids, Vaisakh Somanath, Natasha Carroll, Neil Adhikari and Strum Away Collective.
“This year, we have Neptune Chapotin, who used to run the World Mouth Harp Festival in Arambol, performing and teaching the mouth harp. We also have dancers performing and dancing and some of our artists are playing the guitar in addition to the ukulele. Last year, we had a fabulous spontaneous collaboration between ukulele, beat boxing, base and didgeridoo. I’m also teaching a yogalele workshop which includes mantras singing and ukulele playing,” says Christina.
Whether you would love to strum the ukulele or enjoy the music of this instrument, the music sessions will surely entertain any music lover.
