18/08/2026
A wee word....
I've only just sat down to properly go through the wonderful photos and videos from Jen and our media team from this weekend, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.
My heart is very full. β€οΈ
Weekends like this are all about people and the connections we make. Somehow this shared love of four strings creates opportunities to have conversations, make friendships and share moments with people that might simply never have happened otherwise.
And this weekend felt absolutely jam-packed with those moments. ('Scuse the pun. πͺ)
I have a wile pile of thank yous to make, so settle in...
First of all, thank you to every single person who bought a ticket and supported Belfast Ukulele Festival. Every year we put this thing together, cross our fingers and hope you'll come β and you do. Some of you travel a very long way to be here. You take a chance on our wee festival and honestly, it means the absolute world to us.
This festival is run by a very small but ridiculously mighty bunch of women β Yvette, Chrissy, Frances, Cheryl and Jen β and I genuinely couldn't do any of this without them.
Yvette, who is an absolute rock, plans things to the nth degree, spots the things I've forgotten and somehow keeps the whole machine moving.
Chrissy, who took charge of our volunteer army and did an incredible job of keeping everyone where they needed to be β no small feat over a weekend like this.
Frances, who took charge of the merch and somehow survived the onslaught. π
Cheryl, who looked after our artists β and us β with the most cracking hospitality, and brought approximately 427 little details that we didn't even know we needed until she produced them.
And Jen, who did an incredible job heading up our media team, capturing the weekend, sorting the raffle and generally being everywhere at once.
And while we're on the subject of Jen β a special mention must go to Jen's dad, who appears to have spent approximately six months making fourteen gazillion traybakes. Belfast Ukulele Festival may actually be 40% powered by fifteens at this point.
To our media team β thank you for capturing all those moments that we'd otherwise miss while we're running around like headless chickens.
To our volunteers β you were absolutely phenomenal. Friendly, helpful, calm, enthusiastic and willing to muck in with whatever was thrown at you. Festivals simply don't happen without people like you.
To everyone who led our jams and playing sessions, thank you for getting hundreds of people playing together and reminding us what this whole daft thing is really about.
To every single band who took part in Battle of the Uke Bands, and to all the group leaders and members who put in weeks and months of rehearsals β THANK YOU. The standard this year was absolutely ridiculous, but more importantly, the joy, creativity and sheer craic you brought to that stage was something else.
To everyone who got up at our Open Mic β whether you're a seasoned performer or your knees were knocking together backstage β thank you for being brave enough to share your music with us.
To our wonderful artists, who essentially took a punt on a wee festival in Belfast and trusted us to look after you β thank you. You were an absolute joy.
And a particular thank you to Mandi and George, who stepped in at the eleventh hour and well and truly saved our bacon. β€οΈ
To Claire Hastings, Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq., Richard Dormer and Mike Yip, our brilliant BOTUB judges β thank you for taking on the frankly impossible job of choosing between those bands. And to Mike for his fantastic workshop too.
To the entire Mandela Hall team β the staff, tech crew and sound team β thank you for being so accommodating, professional and genuinely lovely to work with all weekend.
And especially Robyn, who solved approximately 7,000 problems before I'd even finished explaining what the problem was. Robyn, I sincerely hope you're currently lying in a darkened room and nobody is asking you anything.
And then there's our glorious MC, Lucy Morgan.
Lucy put a ridiculous amount of work into this festival long before she ever stepped onto that stage β creating her brilliant visuals, planning, plotting and helping us make the shows what they were. And then somehow managed to hold everything together on stage while simultaneously keeping me sane off it.
Lucy, you're an absolute star. β€οΈ
Thank you too to everyone at The Deer's Head who welcomed our uke invasion, fed us, watered us and gave us somewhere to squeeze in those last precious jams of the weekend.
And finally...
You lot.
The people who came. The people who played. The people who sang. The people who danced. The people who chatted to the stranger beside them. The people who shared seats, bought raffle tickets, cheered on bands they'd never heard before, tried something new, made new friends and hugged old ones.
That's the festival.
It's not the programme, the stage, the tickets or the spreadsheets. It's those little moments of connection happening all over the place that we couldn't plan if we tried.
I've heard so many stories already about things that happened this weekend, and I know I've only heard a fraction of them.
So thank you for trusting us with your weekend.
Thank you for bringing your ukuleles.
Thank you for bringing the craic.
And thank you for making our wee festival feel very, very special.
My heart is full.
My brain is absolutely fecked.
And I'd do it all again...although maybe not tomorrow. πβ€οΈπͺ
Rho x
