It’s been a while since I’ve been playing at a festival – so when Elisabeth Pfeiffer asked me to perform at this years UFO Festival, I gladly said yes. And man am I happy that I said yes, because I had the best time and it went sooo much better than could’ve hoped for. I will probably post some videos from my performance soon, but first I want to talk about the festival and my experience.
UFO Festival is organized by Elisabeth Pfeiffer, who, as you all probably know by now, is a fixture in the European ukulele community, an accomplished ukulele player and overall just a wonderful person. The location of the festival in rural Bavaria is still as charming as it was three years ago – yep, it’s actually been three years since the last festival there (fuck Covid).
The afternoon started out with workshops and strum-alongs and in the evening the open-mic opened for the concerts. There was great food (cake anyone) and overall just a super chilled vibe, lots of laughter and meeting friends. Sadly, this is the only picture I actually took at the festival – but I’ll link some pictures and videos from other people at the end of this post.
Strum-Alongs
The strum-alongs were hosted by Schatzfinder Sabine and Martin. They brought some great songs, that you not always see at festival – including one of my favorite Joan Baez Songs “Donna, Donna”. Their song choices made it possible to hear “Skandal im Sperrbezirk” right before “Das Model”, how fun is that. And since I keep meeting Sabine and Martin at festivals all over Europe I want to say thank you for always being fun to hang out with 🙂
Workshops
Just like in Graz, I did not attend any workshops – not because I already know everything (far from that) but because I noticed that attending workshops is a major stressor for me. Right now I’m all about enjoying myself and living in the moment. But the workshops offered were a nice variety and since everyone else enjoyed them a lot they deserve being mentioned. Besides some classics like “Ukulele Basics”, “Ukulele for Kids” and “Swing It” there were also workshops focused on Singing by Calico and a workshop on “Clawhammer” hosted by Andreas Bördlein, who also offers great video tutorials – make sure to check it out.
Artists
The line-up for the festival was really great and I am so proud that I got to be part of it. All artists were from Germany or Austria and the program not only offered a wide variety of genres, but also lots of laughter and fun. You can check out all the artists with the links. Be sure to give them a like or a follow 🙂
- Calico
- Iso Herquist
- Marco Tschirpke
- Patrick Ranft
- Nikky and the Ukulele <3
My performance
There’s really not much to say about my performance except that it was great. I had so much fun being on stage, every song came out like I practiced and how I wanted it to be. The audience was great and had a fun time. I got some laughs with my songs and my moderation. Overall it was definitely my best performance so far.
And I think the reason for that is that for the first time I felt a deep sense of belonging. I was welcomed as one of the artists, treated as such and never got the feeling that I am not worthy of being here or not as worthy as anyone else.
Thank you Elisabeth for making this happen 🙂
Here are some pictures from the official photographer Karin Kirst-Scholz:
Pictures and Videos
You can check out some pictures and videos of the festival at the official Instagram Feed.
Well, there’s really not much more to say. I had a great time and thanks to everyone who was there and made this such a special weekend for me.
xoxo Nikky
Nikky, I really enjoyed your performance! Your interpretation and ‘translation’ of ‘Making Whoopee’ was awesome! Your songs made me laugh despite the fact that I only understood about 90 percent of the words.
Thank you so much. I am really glad you enjoyed it and it was nice to meet you. Hope to see you again soon at a festival