Kids Power Hampshire, England, Ukulele World Record Attempt

The kids are alright, and may have helped make ukulele history.

If Hampshire, England’s bid to best Yokohama, Japan, as the record holder for the largest ukulele strum-along in history is validated you can credit a large number of school kids.

“There were over 2000 school children there making up the bulk of the participants,” Jessica Andress told Ukulele magazine. “All the local ukulele groups were invited too. We took 18 from our group.” 

Led by television presenter Justin Fletcher the crowd played through “Frere Jaques”, “Uke n Sing,”  an original song written for the event by Jan Stroud, and “When the Saints Come Marching In.”  The chords for each tune were displayed on a giant stadium monitor.

“The uke players were mainly school children but many people of all ages took part,” Ben Rouse, who also attended the event with two friends, said.

In all, 4,000 people showed up at the Southampton Football Club stadium, with an estimated 2,370 joining in to try and beat the previous record of 2,135 simultaneous strummers. 

“The afternoon ended for the children with more songs with Justin Fletcher and then all the children went home,” Andress said. “The adults retired to the bar where Uke teacher and player, Phil Doleman, gave a one hour workshop. Then there was an open mike session and finally a concert to end the day.”

Rouse said that it will take six weeks for the world record team to officially verify whether the record has fallen.

“I had such a great day and will always remember the awesome sound of 2370 ukuleles all playing together,” Rouse, who shared his photographs of the event, said.