The Straddie Singers

The Ukulele festival was special to me because I did my first open mic on the street singing and playing ukulele at the La Bella Restaurant space organised by the festival. I had so much fun, people were singing along. I had tears in my eyes watching the talent of Ryo Montgomery, people danced in the hall as the MUGS played. Girls decorated ukes with coloured paints and Jewels. Everyone smiled, whether they were performers or in the audience, there was a light in people’s eyes, it’s about the joy. – Maree

Thank you very much for inviting me to be involved in the Ukulele Festival this year. I am really happy it it was such a success. Organisers should be very proud of their hard work that went into it and the success of the week end.

I just want to congratulate you and the hard working team on such a wonderful, successful event over the week end. The children had an absolute fantastic time. They were so excited to perform and it was so lovely that the audience were so receptive and supportive of their efforts. I was so proud to see them performing and singing confidentially in front of a big audience at such a young age. I really enjoyed seeing the terrific Ukulele groups performing. It’s so nice to see people sharing their passion for music. Definitely count us in for next year.

I found it helpful, good feedback from customers and it was a good trading day for me, and I think we should have more of these little festivals in Cleveland, and particularly in Bloomfield Street to help businesses improve more and more and get better exposure to the public. – Joseph

– I thought it was awesome and fantastic to see all those professional guys and girls up there having a go at their ukuleles and I think they’ve done a fantastic job. And to put this festival on it takes a lot of hard work for Karen  and Len and the sponsors and that, to come up and actually have it in Cleveland, have it in the Redlands, because in my whole life I’ve never been to one, I used to live in Maryborough and they never had one up there. When I came to the Redlands I saw the road signs and found out about the festival.  I enjoyed it and I hope there’s more to come like this. – Brad

We really enjoyed it, I think the customers who weren’t even aware of the festival loved it as well. A lot of them came up and listened to the music too. It would be great if there were something like that all the time, actually, it’s fun but it needs to be a bit longer maybe if possible a whole day. A lot of customers who were sitting inside got up and listened to the music, it’s definitely something that needs to happen a lot more. – Lisa

On Thursday we had the ukulele group in the shopping centre performing and that was great to hear them and it was good for business for me. They all like to come down for lunch afterwards. On Saturday we had a busier Saturday than the last few Saturday and we were hoping that was because of the impact of the Ukulele Festival. – Kate

It was a great week end. Many thanks to all the group that worked so hard to make it a wonderful event, but special thanks to Karen and Len for all their persistence in keeping the Redlands Ukulele Festival this year. Hope it can continue next year.

Thank you for your efforts in organising the 2014 Redlands Ukulele Festival. The venues, workshops and guest artist were spectacular. Thanks also for providing me with the opportunity to perform at the Sat. and Sun. concerts with the Dukes.   I loved the Ukulele groups practice session prior to the event. Redland City was also a great winner I look forward to next years event.

On behalf of MUGS I wish to congratulate you on a wonderful event that was the Redlands Ukulele Festival. It was absolutely fabulous and you and the organizers deserve great credit for staging such a successful event. We were happy to be part of the event and know that it will only get better next year.