Hawaii via Hayward: Ukulele Festival Brings Thousands to Chabot College

The 17th Annual Ukulele Festival of Northern California is the longest running ukulele festival on the mainland.

Held on April 3 at Chabot College's Performing Arts Center, the festival featured more than 350 performers, with many coming from as far as Canada, North Carolina and Hawaii. Among them were Kaleponi Strings, which includes members from Union City.

There was a great turnout as the show sold all 1,450 tickets by 1 p.m., which was capacity, according to event organizer Sarah Kamai-Paler. 

"We felt bad that we had to turn people away, but we couldn't sell any more tickets," Kamai-Paler said.

But even if attendees couldn't get into the auditorium, there was still plenty to enjoy outside the venue.

Chabot's courtyard was filled with vendors selling Hawaiian arts and crafts and musical instruments. A big draw was the numerous booths selling Hawaiian food, like malasadas, kalua pig and snow cones.

There was plenty of ukulele music around as well. Musicians gave impromptu performances as they practiced and jammed outside with others.

"This event shouldn't be looked at as a competition, but as a gathering and sharing of talent," Kamai-Paler said.

Check out the highlights in the photo gallery above.