Ukulele Festival at the Chequers Inn Doddington Saturday 3rd August 2024

30/07/2024

Ukulele Festival at the Chequers Inn Doddington Saturday 3rd August 2024
See you there!

Please use the car parks on the below map, any spaces on the street are required for villagers, thankyou!

20/07/2024

Hobgoblin Music are coming to our festival with a selection of ukuleles and accessories for you to try before you buy.
See you there!

16/07/2024

Counting down ….just over 2 weeks to go. Some information :
The Venue: The Chequers Inn is situated in the village of Doddington, Kent postcode ME9 0BG. Our local pub is the heart of village life and serves excellent food lunchtimes and evenings. The food is traditional, home cooked and locally sourced. If you would like to have lunch or dinner it is recommended to book in advance tel 01795 886366. There will be a barbecue and an outside bar selling beers and lagers and soft drinks.
www.chequersinndoddington.co.uk
The Venue : The stage will be at the top end of the car park. There will be 60 + seats close to the stage. The stage will also be visible from the garden and there are table/benches and shade in the garden and also tables and benches in front of the pub. We suggest you bring some seats if you would like to sit close to the stage or blankets/chairs if you prefer to sit in the garden.
The stage faces south! If it’s a sunny day we recommend you bring hats and plenty of suncream!
Car Parking : There will not be any parking at the pub except to drop off people, equipment and instruments. We have set up two parking areas a short walk from the venue:
1. Just off the street behind the Village Hall.
2. Aproximately 250 yards up Chequers Hill in the left.
Both will be signposted. We ask that you use the designated parking areas and avoid parking on Chequers Hill or The Street as we do not wish to inconvenience our neighbours.


This year’s line up:
12.20 Introduction-Welcome + DUM
12.40 Tabou
13.05 Ukelear Subs
13.30 Caramellos
13.55 Sevenukes
14.20 Stevedores
14.45 10 minute Break
14.55 Cahon John and The Blanks
15.20 Rye Ukulele Experiment
15.45 Market Strummers
16.10 DUM
16.35 Merry Mondays
17.05 Strum along
17.30 End of performance event-Pub and garden remain open

14/07/2024

Our Charity for this years Ukulele Festival is MNDA.
One of the musicians playing at the festival; Alli, will be collecting on the day. This is her story:

“I am raising money to support our local Motor Neurone Disease Associations in Kent. There are approximately 200 people in Kent who suffer with this cruel condition which as yet, has no cure.
My friend was diagnosed with MND last year and I was keen to do something as I felt so helpless. So far, I have held an Afternoon Tea for 64 guests and had an Open House Coffee morning/afternoon for our Local MND Associations raising just over £2300. I will also be running the Kielder Marathon in Northumberland in October in aid of this charity. All the money I raise is helping provide support for local sufferers and their families with things like tablets to communicate, hoists, beds as well as Visitors from the Association Visitors programme, group and individual talking sessions.
I am delighted that DUM have agreed that their nominated charity this year is MNDA and I hope you will agree this is a worthwhile cause. As well as being able to make a donation you will also have the opportunity to buy new books for £1 each – a great opportunity to fill your shelves. I will also have some leaflets available for you to have a little more information about this disease.
Thank you in anticipation
Alli”
Let’s see how much we can raise to help this Charity.

30/06/2024

Songbook for The Ukefest:

Shared with Dropbox

28/06/2024

Only 5 weeks to go.
We are planning to have a strumalong after all performances, about 5pm so bring along your Uke if you would like to join in.

Please print out and bring along a copy of our strumalong songbook.

See you all there !

05/06/2024

Date for your diaries !

06/04/2024

We now have the line up for this year’s Festival, looking forward to another great day :

11/02/2024

We have fixed a date for our 2024 Festival: Saturday 3rd August 2024.
More information to follow shortly, in the meantime, please reserve the date in your diaries.

05/08/2023

Thank you everyone who made a donation to our nominated charity SERV at our Festival 22nd July. Excellent result!

22/07/2023

The ukulele festival is going ahead. If it gets too wet we will move into the pub. 
See you all there for an afternoon of the best ukulele music around .

21/07/2023

We are planning to go ahead with The Ukefest tomorrow. If the weather deteriorates or there is a weather warning we will make a decision and post by 9.30 am tomorrow.
Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

09/07/2023

Parking map. Please do not park in the street since there is restricted parking for residents.

09/07/2023

Counting down ….just over 2 weeks to go. Some information :
The Venue: The Chequers Inn is situated in the village of Doddington, Kent postcode ME9 0BG. Our local pub is the heart of village life and serves excellent food lunchtimes and evenings. The food is traditional, home cooked and locally sourced. If you would like to have lunch or dinner it is recommended to book in advance tel 01795 886366. There will be a barbecue and an outside bar selling beers and lagers and soft drinks.
www.chequersinndoddington.co.uk
The Venue : The stage will be at the top end of the car park. There will be 60 + seats close to the stage. The stage will also be visible from the garden and there are table/benches and shade in the garden and also tables and benches in front of the pub. We suggest you bring some seats if you would like to sit close to the stage or blankets/chairs if you prefer to sit in the garden.
The stage faces south! If it’s a sunny day we recommend you bring hats and plenty of suncream!
Car Parking : There will not be any parking at the pub except to drop off people, equipment and instruments. We have set up two parking areas a short walk from the venue:
1. Just off the street behind the Village Hall.
2. Aproximately 250 yards up Chequers Hill in the left.
Both will be signposted. We ask that you use the designated parking areas and avoid parking on Chequers Hill or The Street as we do not wish to inconvenience our neighbours.

This year’s line up:
12.30 Introduction-Welcome + DUM
12.45 Forged Steal
13.10 Caramellos
13.35 Tenor Ladies
14.00 Rye Ukulele Experiment
14.25 Break
14.35 Ukelear Subs
15.00 Galloping Alligators
15.25 BIG Ukulele Jam
15.50 Market Strummers
16.15 Sevenukes
16.40 Doddington Ukulele Movement
17.05 Strum along
17.30 End of performance event-Pub and garden remain open

Charity Donations:
We will not be holding a raffle this year but we will be inviting donations to SERV (Service by Emergency Response Volunteers). One of our members is a “blood runner”. The charity was particularly busy during lockdown delivering sample Covid tests, platelets, blood, dialysis medications and supporting the Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance. No one receives any payment for being on the rota and being called out. Lockdown and spiralling fuel costs has caused the charity to suffer financially.
Please be generous.

Hobgoblin Music Canterbury will have a stall where you will have the chance to try and to buy a selection of ukuleles and accessories.

A listed 14th Century coaching inn, The Chequers has played an integral part in Doddington life for centuries. It's a place that’s long been loved by locals - but its traditional charm and character draws visitors from afar.

02/07/2023

Hi all,
This year we plan to have a strum along/singalong
to wind up the festival at just after 5pm.

Download a copy of the Songbook here!

Bring along your uke and join in! If you would like to buy a ukulele Hobgoblin Music Shop Canterbury will have a stall with some lovely instruments!

You can view "Ukefest 2023 songbook.pdf" at:

Click or tap to view this file.

02/07/2023

Just 3 weeks to go! Are you ready?

23/05/2023

Just two months to go! Save the date !

28/03/2023

This year’s line up :

17/02/2023

Pleased to announce that we have fixed the date for this year’s Festival: Saturday 22nd July.
We have finalised the list of performers iincluding 2 new groups.
Watch this page for updates.

21/06/2022

We are pleased to announce that Big Ukulele Jam will be joining our Festival. Looking forward to a an afternoon of great music.

21/05/2022

Counting down, eight weeks to go!

07/02/2022

A date for your diary :

21/01/2022

We have missed 2 years but we are excited that we are now planning to bring back the event this year. Saturday 16th July!
Further information to follow!