Mileage for Ukulele Events

I started keeping track of how far I drive for ukulele sessions. Since April, I have driven 2,078 miles to play my ukulele. My Wednesday session is 15 miles round trip. Saturday is either 60 or 110, depending on whether I go to one or two. Once a month, I might drive 160 miles to another group.

Then, of course, there are the special, single events, and the annual Uke Fests that could involve several hundred miles of driving just to get there. When the driving time exceeds the playing time, I have to give the trip serious thought.

How about you? Do you drive a lot to go to uke sessions?

Ha, ha.......... I neither drive, nor go to Festivals............

..........& I don't have any groups near-by either. :smileybounce:


.....but that's OK........I just do my own thing.

Ames, IA to the Ukulele World Congress in Needmore, IN, 1129 miles round trip. I guess that includes two trips into town. Also the trip to Minneapolis for the festival there, probably close to 450 miles round trip. It doesn't make much difference, my wife and I like to road trip, so if we weren't going to ukulele festivals, we would be going somewhere else. As far as locally, I don't really keep track. I also don't have any weekly or monthly meetings or groups that I play with, so I'm not making regular trips anywhere locally. I do have an occasional meetup with some friends and I ride my bicycle, maybe six or eight miles round trip.

Croaky Keith said:

Ha, ha.......... I neither drive, nor go to Festivals............

..........& I don't have any groups near-by either. :smileybounce:


.....but that's OK........I just do my own thing.

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Wow! It's the group activity that keeps my playing. When I'm home, I seem to find other things that have to be done.

I have to consider myself lucky living in Los Angeles and retired when it comes to uke playing, there are many, many places to play. My seniors group, The CC Strummers, meets twice a week, Monday afternoons and Thursday mornings, about 5 miles away, which takes me about 20 minutes to drive. I also play with an acoustic group in a park every Sunday, which is in the same vicinity. Then there's U-Space in Little Tokyo Downtown, a uke and coffee shop where you can just sit and strum as you wish, 10 miles away, about 35 min. Our group also plays at the Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival in Torrence once a year, the longest distance I will travel regularly, which is about 25 miles away, 45min.

Because I'm able to play so often nearby, I don't feel a need to travel longer distances, like Island Bazaar in Huntington Beach, which once took me almost 1 1/2 hours to drive 45 miles, or the Palm Springs festival (117 miles), or fight the traffic to any of the uke groups in the San Fernando Valley.

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8 tenor cutaway ukes, 3 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. http://www.theukc.org
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I don't go to any uke groups locally though there are several.

I go to folk clubs and open mics of which there are plenty within 30 - 40 mins drive. I have to ration myself or my wife won't be too pleased.

I play other instruments as well and take part in a range of musical activities.

Go to some classes in the area, but haven't found groups to play with. Surprising actually since I live in Oakland across from SF.
There have been two tiny one afternoon festivals that I've found, but missed.
Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.
I work and am too young to be playing at the Sr centers

You folks put on a lot more miles than I do.

If I'm not playing bass, will take my Segway to jams & gigs if it's within 2 miles & there isn't much traffic. (Top speed 12 mph; 22 mile range) Waikiki isn't that far away but has waaay too much traffic.

Most other jams/gigs are within 5 miles so will drive to those.

Jam session: 3 minutes away.
Tampa Bay Ukulele Getaway: 12 miles away.
Farthest band member: 45 minutes away.
Nearest band member: other side of the bed. (Yes I sleep with a band member, only one, my wife)
ALFs all over the county....various distances, wonderful audiences. (You're never too young to play for the elderly, they love us all)

Kind of new to the events - only done two so far.
Camp Ookoolaylay was 120 miles round trip.
Mendocino Coast UkeFest was 240 miles round trip.
My monthly meet up is 2 miles round trip (lucky for that). Going to check out Burning Uke and smoldering Uke next year in addition to the two above so I will be into the 4 digit mileage count with some of y'all pretty soon I suspect.

captain-janeway said:

Go to some classes in the area, but haven't found groups to play with. Surprising actually since I live in Oakland across from SF.
There have been two tiny one afternoon festivals that I've found, but missed.
Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.
I work and am too young to be playing at the Sr centers

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It's funny , there should be more groups in the area. Isn't there a Ukulele group in Berkeley? I know there are some in the Peninsula, South Bay and Santa Cruz.

-- Gary

Jerryc41 said:

Wow! It's the group activity that keeps my playing. When I'm home, I seem to find other things that have to be done.

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We don't have a ukulele group in the area, but there are other musicians that I play with. But I go out busking and I play in venues around the area and those are what keep me motivated. I'm afraid that if I didn't have those I wouldn't have any reason to keep working at it. My practice for the last three years has been getting ready for the next outing.