Check out our festival history to see which stars of the ukulele world have visited Las Cruces.

Las Cruces UkeFest History

2015: Mark Baker taught two well-attended workshops and performed a concert for our first mini-festival.

2016: Jim D’Ville taught two of his “Play Ukulele By Ear” workshops and performed a concert.

2017: Instructor/performers were Jim and Liz Beloff, Heidi Swedberg, Daniel Ward, and Danielle Ate the Sandwich. Gorton Smith of the Las Cruces Ukes led The Gospel According to Uke. We moved the entire festival to the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum and sold out the concert space of 165 people a month before the festival.

2018: Instructor/performers were Mark Baker, Craig Chee, Lil’ Rev, Rachel Manke, and Sarah Maisel. Gorton reprised his Gospel According to Uke sing-along. The festival workshops were held at the NM Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, but the concert was moved to the NMSU Atkinson Recital Hall to accommodate a larger audience, which was about 300 people.

2019: Instructor/performers were The Quiet American (Aaron and Nicole Keim), Victoria Vox, Abe Lagrimas Jr., and Kevin Carroll, along with Gorton Smith’s Gospel According to Uke session. The same venues as in 2018 were used.

2020 and 2021: COVID caused our ukefests to be held online with our (now) 2022 line-up of instructors.

2022: Instructor performers were Daniel Ho, Del Rey, Casey MacGill, Dani Joy, and Perry Stauffer. Gorton reprised Gospel According to Uke, and all events were held at the same venues.

2023: The festival featured instructors from New Mexico and was held at a new venue, Doña Ana Community College East Mesa Campus. Our instructors were the Smoking Jackets: Daniel Ward, Heidi Swedberg, Craig McClellan, and John Bartlit.

2024: The festival moved to New Mexico State University in the Corbett Center, providing a wealth of space for workshops and other activities. Instructors were Neal Chin, Stephen Espaniola, Danielle Ate the Sandwich, and Daniel Ward.

2025: Two returning instructors, Casey MacGill and Rachel Manke, and two new-to-us instructors, Abby Lyons and Devin Scott, were featured at Las Cruces UkeFest 2025. New Mexico State University was again the venue.

2026: This festival featured Stu Fuchs, Amy Kucharik, “Viggy” Kolasinski, and Sho Humphries at NMSU.

2027: We’re excited for Jim Beloff to return to our festival, a decade after his first visit! We will also welcome Jessica Maeve, John Nash, and Jenna Ivey.