Hi DUGs,
It has been nice to see our numbers steadily growing over recent weeks.
A great big DUG welcome to our latest members, Sandra Dawson, and John McBoyle. I am sure you will look after them, as you always do with newcomers.
BraveUke 2026
1st - 3rd May 2026 - Victoria Hall, Dunblane
In May this year, about a dozen of our members attended the first BraveUke Ukulele Festival in Dunblane.
It was an amazing experience. The festival was a great success and we had an fantastic weekend.
Doune Ukulele Group were invited to perform at the opening of the festival on the Friday evening. We also took part in the Band Showcase on Sunday afternoon. For next year's event, we have been asked to perform again, this time as part of the Saturday evening performance.
Early Bird Tickets will go on sale on 15th September. Based on the popularity of this year's festival, I expect these to sell out very quickly. The weekend ticket will cost £60.00 (+ £1.50 service fee). This is very good value for a festival. Tickets for many of the UK ukulele festivals are well in excess of £100, and often have additional charges for workshops (all included for BraveUke). When you take into account the cost of transport/accommodation, these are out of reach for many of us. We are so lucky to have such an event on our doorstep.
The programme will include:
Friday night - Ukulele Saz, Clackmannanshire Ukulele Band, Phil Doleman, Zoe Bestel, and Ukulele Simon.
Saturday - Workshops, Outside mass strum, Open-mic.
Saturday night - Andy Webster, Open-mic winner, Doune Ukulele Group, Matthew Quilliam, The Mersey Belles, Warehouse of Thieves.
Sunday - Workshops , Ukulele Groups Showcase, Farewell mass strum
To ensure none of our members miss out, we are going to put a block booking in as soon as tickets go on sale.
If you would like to take part, please let me know this week.
I know next May is a long way off. If you are worried that you might ask for a ticket now, but might be unable to attend, don't worry. If we have any unused tickets, we are confident we can resell them nearer the time.
I will be ordering tickets next Monday. Please let me know of you are interested THIS WEEK
Open Mic 🎤
We will have at least one open mic spot this week, in preparation for the Findhorn Festival. If anyone else fancies getting up, just let me know 🎵
Playlist
In the absence of any volunteers coming forward, I am going to continue with our 'Pick of the Pops'
20. Psycho Killer
19. Pencil full of Lead
18. Man on the Moon
17. I'm Yours
16. Four Strong Winds
15. Western Isles
14. Me and Julio
13. Budapest
12. California Blue
11. Harvest Moon
Please, please, please... I need some of you to choose playlists for the coming weeks!
It's really easy. I will send you a full, up-to-date songlist. You choose10-12 songs for the group to play.
Even if you have done so before, have another go.
DUG Song Sheets
Now that we are no longer using printed song sheets at our meetings, all new songs will be put on the website, rather than attached to these emails. If you want to practice any of our songs, you can view/download all our songs here: Our Songs