Scotland’s first Uke Fest to be held in Dumfries
Written by author on April 11, 2016
SCOTLAND’S first Ukulele festival is set to go ahead at the Crichton Royal at Dumfries next month.
The festival will be held from May 6- 8 and is set to star artists from all over the world as many local ones as well.
James Hill, on of the top players in the world agreed to join the very first festival. A seasoned performer with an ever-growing fan base in North America, Asia and Europe, James Hill has garnered wide acclaim for his song writing skills and ground-breaking approach to the chronically-underestimated ukulele.
The compere will be Paul L Martin is one of the UK’s most sought after events comperes with a string of high profile venues and clients during his 22 years in the business.
Paul has performed at such prestigious venues as Knebworth and Hampton Court Palace, working for clients including Vodafone, Tesco, National Trust, M&S and the cast of Eastenders.
Stuart Butterworth is the Creative Director for the festival and will be delivering a Reggae workshop and will bring our band, derived from our much larger ukulele family to open the festival concert (we can’t get 100 plus strummers on stage – well we could but it is not practical).
He started teaching at the age of 15 to earn some pocket money and trained at the University of Huddersfield. Where he studied performing, conducting, music history and composition, gaining a B.A. (Hons) in music, and Bretton Hall (University of Leeds) where he gained a PGCE. He has taught in private, community, school and higher education settings for over thirty years and has been Director of Music in several schools.
He and his wife Linda, who live at Rockcliffe, near Dalbeattie, now own a group of award winning children’s nurseries which pays the bills! Since moving to Scotland (to give their four adopted children a small community up bringing by the sea) he has run a variety of local and nationwide community musical events including; singing workshops, choirs and ukulele workshops.
He leads 8 ukulele groups, 2 of which he and Linda run on a voluntary basis in local primary schools. He also teaches blocks of ukulele sessions at the local prison where prisoners and prison wardens learn together. It has been so popular that one prisoner, who was unexpectedly released early, returned to prison to finish off the last group!
