Newkulele Festival 2024
The Newkulele Festival offers a fun, musically inclusive weekend celebrating the sounds of the ukulele. This unique family friendly, community event is suitable for all ages and ukulele enthusiasts.
Newkulele Festival 2024 Children's Concert
Saturday 19 October 2024
Enjoy a morning of children's entertainment with Tom the Pom, Charlestown Public School Ukulele Ensemble and Mick Conway & Robbie Long. Held in the Harold Lobb Concert Hall in the Conservatorium of Music 10am-11.40am
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
Newkulele Festival 2024 Weekend Pass
Saturday 19 October 2024
Weekend Pass will allow entry to Opening Night, Day One & Day Two*
*does not include entry to One Song Sing or Saturday Night Concert. Please purchase tickets to these events separately.
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Opening Night (Friday 18 Oct 2024 from 6.30pm) The Cricketers Arms Hotel, 61 Bruce St Cooks Hill, NSW
Day One (Saturday 19 Oct 2024 10am-3pm) Conservatorium of Music, 34 Auckland St Cooks Hill NSW
Day Two (Sunday 20 Oct 2024 10am-4.30pm) Carrington Bowling Club, Carrington NSW
Multiple Venues
LOCH & LOADED: Stage Presence with Graeme McColgan
Saturday 19 October 2024
In this workshop, Graeme “The Scotsman” McColgan will lead you to captivating stage performances with your uke.
Newkulele Festival 2024 Workshop
This workshop focuses on building confidence through simple techniques, engaging your audience, and enhancing your overall stage presence. Learn techniques to express yourself, connect with your listeners, and deliver memorable performances.
Perfect for ukulele enthusiasts of all levels, this workshop will help you shine on stage and make your music truly resonate.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
PERFORMING WTH FLAIR! Chantelle Riordan
Saturday 19 October 2024
What makes a performance captivating? What are the steps you can take to prepare before your performance to make sure everything runs smoothly? Are there any tips and techniques you can use if you are nervous while performing?
This fun and interactive workshop covers the do’s and dont's for getting started with performing, including the gear that you’ll need, what you’ll need to do before you get on stage and how you can draw the audience in while you are there.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
SINGING WORKSHOP Jo Maunsell & Ruth McCrae
Saturday 19 October 2024
Jo and Ruth have decades of singing experience from their early days with Cafe at the Gates of Salvation to teaching and performing.
They will help you get the best out of your vocals and teach you how to harmonise with others.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
YOUNG PLUCKERS w Mel Saunders
Saturday 19 October 2024
Melissa Saunders works full-time at Hive Creative Studios in Charlestown as the director of their under 8’s Creative programmes, including uke, xylophone and percussion. She is willing to work with local existing ukulele groups from local schools or uke groups to create a performance for the festival. Alternatively, depending on your expected attendees, she could run a parent attended music experience with children under 7.
Mel Saunders Children’s workshop which will be free for children ($10 for accompanying adults)
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
CAMPANELLA UKULELE w Sally Carter
Saturday 19 October 2024
Campanella Ukulele – for high G soprano/concert/tenor ukuleles. Sally Carter will show you how to make your ukulele sound like a harp by playing as many open strings as possible when playing a tune.
Three tunes will be looked at and different techniques will be discussed.
TAB reading skills required.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
SOMEWHERE OVER THE 3RD FRET w Tom the Pom
Saturday 19 October 2024
Get down the dusty end and into the interesting shapes and places.
Demystify chords and all those funny words like “Inversions” and “Voicings”.
Make C, F, Am and G7 a challenge again!
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
UBASS FOR BEGINNERS w John Wallace
Saturday 19 October 2024
Have you ever wanted to learn the bass? Every uke group needs one!
Come and learn the basics from Newcastle’s premier Ubass teacher, John Wallace, and leave with the skills to accompany your uke group effectively on almost any song.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
LATIN UKE: The Clave Abe Dunovits
Saturday 19 October 2024
This workshop will show how to incorporate Latin American music rhythm concepts such as the Clave, strumming styles and melodic elements into your playing, with original compositional examples as well as well known Latin American music classics.
Abe has extensive experience as a music teacher, performer of Latin American music for over 30 years and has a fun and knowledgeable teaching style.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
MASTER EVENT PLANNING: From Concept to Success
Saturday 19 October 2024
Are you interested in learning the art of planning and hosting successful events? Would you like to seize control of your earning potential as a musician? In this interactive workshop, you’ll delve into the “how to” of event planning, covering everything from initial concept development through budgeting and marketing all the way to post-event evaluation.
Whether you’re organising a fundraiser, a community music event, or (as a working musician) you’d like to reduce your reliance on venue bookings and maybe host your own successful workshops; this session will equip you with the essential skills and knowledge needed to execute your own flawless events from start to finish.
Your workshop hosts, Graeme McColgan (NSW) and Jackie Barnes (TAS) have over 30 combined years of experience planning and hosting successful community & corporate events, festivals, workshops and one-off specialty functions. Graeme, as musician and dance caller, has organised and performed at events for decades in
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
UKES IN AN AMPLIFIED WORLD w Keith Rea
Saturday 19 October 2024
This workshop will cover:
Microphones – types, pickup patterns, care and feeding Microphone use – How to correctly use them for both vocals and ukes.
Pickups, volume/tone controls and the audio frequency spectrum.
Amplifiers.
Wireless transmitters – types, range and some interesting facts before buying one.
Basic mixing desk controls and techniques.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
GET YOUR MUSICAL POETRY ON w Craigie Marsh
Saturday 19 October 2024
A feature of the Coolibah Coolective repertoire is writing music to poems we love, for example we do a musical interpretation of Ariel’s Song from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’.
Ahead of the workshop we circulate a poem – perhaps keeping it local with a poem by a local poet (subject to permission from the poet). Participants are encouraged to bring along their voices and/or instruments to add to the song that we write together.
In the first half of the workshop we discuss the musical vibes the poem conveys to participants; how we (Coolibah Coolective) go about creating our own parts; and seek input from the group.
In the second half, participants jam out the song ideas we have worked up together. We record the end result (phone) and share with participants.
Audience participation is key and the skill level and teaching techniques used ensures this workshop is accessible to people of all ages.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
LET’S WRITE A SONG! w Jane Cameron
Saturday 19 October 2024
Who can write a song? You can!
Prolific songwriter, Jane Cameron brings her interactive and engaging introduction to songwriting to Newkfest. Whether you are 10 years old or 80 years old, Jane will share simple tips and tricks to provide a low stakes, fun and collaborative entry into songwriting.
Together you will unblock your creativity and find the path to free your inner songwriter!
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
STRUM ALONG with TYRONE & LESLEY
Saturday 19 October 2024
David Megarrity and Samuel Vincent (Tyrone and Lesley) offer a workshop in which we learn a new song, ‘Strumalong’: a tune about the joys of playing in uke groups, designed for uke groups to play.
The experience, open to players of all skill levels, offers learning around half-chords, simple strumming and basic choral singing. Along the way we may learn more about the mysterious art of songwriting.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
Newkulele Festival 2024 One Song Sing
Saturday 19 October 2024
The super popular One Song Sing is a Festival favourite. Arranged, conducted and facilitated by Jane Jelbart & Mark Jackson. Learn one song in three part harmony in one hour then perform it in the beautiful Harold Lobb Concert Hall at the Conservatorium of Music.
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
Newkulele Festival 2024 Saturday Night Concert
Saturday 19 October 2024
The major evening concert of the Newkulele Festival is not to be missed. Featuring three awesome acts this concert will be a joyous musical adventure that will perfectly cap the first day of the Festival.
Tyrone & Leslie are a songwriting and performance duo who write light music for dark times. They have headlined audiences from the Sydney Opera House to the UK and are regular Festival performers. They have released 6 albums and an EP.
Jac Jel Mac & Wal are our local legends and include leaders of our ukulele community. They are a four part harmony band full of rich vocals, original songs and covers that are a bit country, jazzy & prog rock. These multi-instrumentalists are regular Festival performers and their original song writing is tender, toe tapping and often silly.
Green Fieldz is Sally Carter and Keith Rea and who create a storm of high end energy and entertainment with blazing fiddle, wild guitar work and melodic ukulele.
With MC Cathy Crowley
Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle
Tyrone & Lesley - Unmasked
Tuesday 5 December 2023
Newkulele Festival presents Tyrone & Lesley - Unmasked!
A rare chance to spend an evening with the blokes behind Tyrone and Lesley. David Megarrity is an award-winning playwright, songwriter, musician, filmmaker and performer. Samuel Vincent is a virtuoso bassist from jazz innovators Trichotomy and world music purveyors Estampa in addition to this long-standing collaboration with David who in 2021 received the Australian Guild of Screen Composers Johnny Dennis Award.
Finally in disguise as themselves, David and Sam have loved playing Newkulele 2014, 16, 18 and 22 and look forward to this unique opportunity to share songs new and old with you as part of their residency at Lighthouse Arts.
Event times
6:30pm - Doors open
7:00pm - David & Samuel set one
7:35pm - Intermission
8:05pm - David & Samuel set two
8:40pm - Finish
Food & Drink
The Cricketer’s Arms has a great range of food & drink on offer.
The Cricketer’s Arms Hotel
