USA Ukulele Festivals: California

No matter how you travel, it's still you going.

The Auburn Area Recreation and Park District (ARD) was established in 1948 and has been providing wonderful parks, recreation and services ever since.

ARD offers a variety of recreational and educational activities for all age groups. ARD’s beautiful parks have an abundance of popular facilities, including Sierra Pool, the Ashley Memorial Dog Park and dozens of acres of ball fields. These parks also play host to a number of events and activities including Party in the Park, the Auburn Community Festival, and Pioneer Days. Additionally, ARD is the premier Auburn area location when planning a birthday party, a family gathering or even a company picnic. Our picnic sites, pools and indoor facilities are affordable and well maintained.

These independently produced music festivals are held annually in the shadows of the infamous Joahua Tree National Park. They are two (of the very few) multi-day campout music festivals in Southern California featuring live music. Music lovers of all ages enjoy this phenomenal live music in an intimate setting and magical surroundings. The spring festival features an eclectic line up of performers; dance-world-electro-funk’n groove. The fall fest differs musically with artists of the more rootsicana-newgrassy-folkadelic realms. The two different musical stylings create distinct audiences at the festivals, but many folks do attend both. The town of Joshua Tree is located in the high desert of the magical Mojave, 50 minutes from Palm Springs, 2.5 hour drive from LA, 3 from San Diego, 3.5 from Vegas, and 5 from Phoenix, at the entrance to the world renowned national park.

No matter how you travel, it's still you going.

2024: Aldrine Guerrero, Bernadette Plazola, Boris Mogilevski, Cali Rose & CC Strummers, Danilo Vignola, Hi'ikua, Jeff Peterson, Melanie Kareem, Victoria Kolasinski (Viggy) & more TBA

Tentatively Rescheduled for Sunday April 26, 2020 The Ukulele Festival of Northern California is the longest running ukulele festival on the mainland. This local event has attracted `ukulele enthusiasts from British Columbia (Canada), to the Islands of Hawaii, as well as local talent throughout California. Be sure to mark your calendar!

The Orange County Ukulele Festival, commonly known as the OC Uke Fest, will hold its 2nd annual event over three days: March 21-23, 2025. Located in Southern California.

February 6-8

The 2014 San Diego Ukulele Festival will take place the weekend of June 7th.

April 18, 2015 - Santa Monica, California

Listen and Learn about the Mighty Ukulele while helping support the Music Program at Santa Monica High School.

The original Southern California Ukulele Festival, or SCUF, was conceived by Susan McCormick, a veteran piano, guitar and ukulele teacher from Cypress, California. Looks like sonething is starting up again.

Because of serious problems with our reservations at Little Basin, we are moving this year’s “Burning Uke” to a new venue: The Hidden Valley Music Seminars Center, located in the heart of beautiful Carmel Valley. It’s the same place that’s been our happy home for Smoldering Uke these past few years. We chose Hidden Valley because it’s a well-run facility with a friendly staff that provides us with a very comfortable place to stay, eat and play. Although it’s a slightly longer drive for most of us who live in the city of Santa Cruz, it’s a pleasant drive—and there are no windy mountain roads full of pot holes to navigate.

We also have a new date for Burning Uke - Thursday, September 10th to Sunday the 13th. This is about a week earlier than we’ve held the event in previous years, and may help us avoid the early-fall rain showers that have plagued us for the last two years!.

The festival is our way of introducing people to the culture, spirit and sounds of Hawaiian music. The art of playing the ukulele has a major impact on the Hawaiian culture. A culture that transcends across many musical boundaries outside of Hawaii. As such, we are striving to preserve this art and culture through all ages and in our communities. The ukulele is not just an instrument; it’s a way of life.

Eighty-six hours of ukulele music, instruction, fun, camaraderie, and general ukulele mayhem! Five days and four nights of ukulele bliss at Asilomar on the Beautiful Monterey Peninsula in California. Featuring classes and workshops, jams sessions and jam slams. All ages and abilities are welcome, as are non-ukulele-playing spouses.

In California's beautiful Napa Valley!

There’s loads of ‘ukulele merriment coming your way at this year’s Wine Country ‘Ukulele Festival, starting with a camp-fire jam at Bothe State Park, Thursday evening, September 10, and ending with Heidi Swedberg and the Smoking Jackets at Velo Vino on Sunday afternoon, September 13…..not to mention all the fun in between!