Our 2025 festival is now over. We’ll leave this page online as a reminder.
Coastal Uke Fest in Cohasset 2025
Coastal Uke Fest in Cohasset is a FREE ukulele festival on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 5, 2025 — featuring Anne Ku, Ken Mattsson, Clark Wanat, and more!
Who should come
- People who play ukulele, people who want to play ukulele, people who like ukulele music
- Adults and teens who want to learn, jam, or strum along
- Kids (with their parents) who want to play more ukulele
- Kids who don’t play ukulele can join in kid-friendly activities from 1-2:30
- FREE admission!
What it’s like
- A relaxed supportive festival for people playing at all different levels
- Beginner-friendly programming from 1:00 to 2:30!
- We’re here to make music together, listen to music together, learn together, have fun together
Where
Set your mapping app for 23 N. Main St., Cohasset. The sign out front says “Unitarian Universalist Parish House / Carriage House Nursery School.” Plenty of street parking around Cohasset Common. Evenings and Sundays you can park in the big lot behind Town Hall, right across the Common. Click for a parking map, or see below.
Optional Registration
Optional registration is closed. Come anyway. Walk-ins are always welcome!
Precautions for respiratory viruses
You’re always welcome to wear a mask at any session to help protect yourself. We’re singing indoors, so please stay home if you’re ill.
Mahalos
Thank you for financial support: Mass. Cultural Council; Gleason Music Fund of First Parish in Cohasset; anonymous donors. Thank you for organizational support: Cohasset Historical Society; First Parish in Cohasset. And special thanks to all the volunteers who make this event possible.
The Program
Tentative program as of August 25, 2025 — details may change.
Workshops
Learn new ukulele skills in a structured setting. “KF” = kid-friendly.
- 1:00-1:30 — “Uke for Absolute Beginners” / KF — Learn 4 basic chords (C-F-G-Am) and the basic strum
- 1:00-1:30 — “Know Your Ukulele” / KF — How to buy a uke, tune your uke, and more
- 1:30-2:30 — “Fun with Ukulele” with Anne Ku / KF — Learn the 20% of what you need to know to play 80% of what you want to play
- 2:00-2:30 — “Play by Ear” with Jim D’Ville — Jim’s famous workshop to get you off the paper, and play music by ear.
- 2:30-3:30 — “Banjo Rolls and Open Strings” with Clark Wanat — Spice up your fingerpicking by using banjo rolls and open strings
- 3:30-4:30 — “Ukulele off the Page” with Ken Mattsson — Learn how to play without song sheets
Strum-alongs
In a strum-along, one person leads songs using song sheets, and everyone strums along. KF = Kid-friendly
- 1:30-2:00 — Familiar songs with C-F-G-Am / KF — with Mary Beth Courtright and Mike Nakashima
- 2:30-3:00 — Songs of Hawai’i — with Mike Nakashima
- 3:00-3:30 — Eric’s Choice — with Eric Eldering Cornetta of Hingham Ceilidh
- 3:30-4:30 — Pop and rock strum-along — with Bryan Jones of Plymouth Uke Circle
Jam Session
- 2:30 to 4:30 — Jam session with Glenn Rivard and Sharon Casual Jam
In a jam session, everyone take turns choosing a song, and Sharon Casual Jam has songbooks to choose songs from. You can simply strum along (as in a strum-along, see above), or more advanced players play alternate chords, take instrumental breaks, etc. Jam sessions welcome uke-friendly instruments like guitar, bass, etc. For more on jam sessions, see this article in Ukulele magazine.
Drop-in activities for kids
- 1:00-2:30 — Kid-friendly and family-friendly activities, led by Dr. Kate Sullivan
Dr. Kate Sullivan has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology, and has worked with children for decades. Kids who don’t play uke, or who get tired of playing uke, are welcome. The drop-in activities will adhere to the child safety policy of First Parish in Cohasset, our fiscal sponsor.
The Concert
Closing concert with performances by workshop leaders.
4:30 — Ken Mattsson
4:45 — Anne Ku and special guests
5:00 — Clark Wanat and the Gwiggles
The People
Program leaders and festival coordinators
- Eric Eldering Cornetta is the leader of the monthly Hingham Ceilidh
- Mary Beth Courtright is a choir director and multi-instrumentalist, and a coordinator of Cohasset Ukulele Circle
- Jim D’Ville is the author of the Play Ukulele By Ear video series, and is a Contributing Editor to Ukulele magazine
- Anne Ku is a composer and well-known ukulele teacher in the Boston area
- Dan Harper is a coordinator of Cohasset Ukulele Circle
- Bryan Jones runs the bi-monthly Plymouth Ukulele Meetup
- Ken Mattsson is a multi-instrumentalist, and ukulele performer & teacher
- Mike Nakashima is a multi-instrumentalist who learned uke in 4th grade growing up on Hawai’i
- Sharon Casual Jam is a monthly multi-instrumental jam session coordinated by Glenn Rivard and Jon Slavin
- Clark Wanat is a songwriter and ukulele principal at Berklee College of Music
Cohasset Ukulele 