St. George, Utah: A Hidden Aloha Paradise  

In southwestern Utah, orange dunes, red sandstone cliffs and green cacti take over the city of St. George. With canyons and streams lining its boundaries, St. George may be better matched with the main theme of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly than a Hawaiian kanikapila, but take a moment or two here to listen, and you won’t just hear the sounds of the desert: You’ll hear a few dozen ukuleles, too.  

St. George’s ukulele clubs, festivals and meetups attest to the instrument’s growing popularity in the United States and around the world. The city’s main uke club, city’s Saint George Ukulele Strummers is open to players of any age, meeting once a week to sing and strum Hawaiian and old classic tunes with local like-minded uke enthusiasts. To ensure its weekly meetings of hard work pay off, the Strummers regularly perform in public and in hospitals, too.  

Once a year, the Strummers’ members – and other local enthusiasts – also take part in St. George’s annual Ukulele Festival. The one-day ukulele extravaganza is a free, family friendly event full of crafts, games and workshops that takes place around June. Like any community festival, the St. George Ukulele Festival relies on volunteers to make their fest a success. Those interested in helping out can sign up the event’s website.  

However, those interested in joining more than one club or attending more than one festival will have to venture further afield. The next closest ukulele community to St. George seems to lie all the way in Salt Lake City, and north in Ogden. But while the Utah Ukulele Association in Ogden meets nearly five hours north of St. George, its Facebook page posts regular updates about the ukulele in Utah, which may prove extremely useful to enthusiasts back in south Utah. Everything from meetings, festivals, events, concerts and general ukulele information is posted here– a must for anyone in the area who wants to learn more about local uke communities and events.  

Utah may not look exactly like Hawaiian paradise, but its ukulele community sure has the island’s Aloha passion down pat.