Gut strings were already produced in Padoa, Verona, Venice, Treviso and Vicenza since the beginning of the 17th century. Documents of the time show that such production lasted uninterruptedly well into the 20th century. Locally produced strings, thanks to their superior quality, were exported abroad in big quantity, as proven by numerous recently discovered archival sources.

Festival is in Italy, close to Venice and Verona, in the wonderful location of a original palladian villa, 4 days of workshop, concerts, jamming together, open mic and ukulele exhibition. James Hill will give a 3 days workshop (prebooking required, only 20 appliants), open mic shows (only on prebooking, 10 foreigners and 10 italians) will be inscribed in a fabolous vaudeville and burlesque show, miniworkshops at every time, and exhibition of ukuleles for sale will be hosted from the makers themselves. the owners of kala, ohana, anuenue, leolani, lanikai, risa, eko will attend the show, and kanile’a, kamaka, mainland are still to be confirmed. big raffle with dozens of high quality ukes to giveaway!

We have organised UkeStock events in Vondelpark for the last two summers, and now think we have an indoor venue for the cold winters! We are putting together the final details of the club but very soon we will begin! Our club members will meet every two weeks in Amsterdam. People of all ages and all ukulele playing abilities are welcome to join.

Information from their 2011 festival. The festival will be held on Friday 23rd and Saturday, September 24th, 2011 at the Center for Ecological Culture (Centro di Cultura Ecologica – Via Fermo Corni, snc, Rome). The festival activities (from the booths, workshops, screenings and performances) will take place in two time periods 5pm to 8pm and 9pm to midnight.