Newkulele News - What is on at the Fabulous Friday Night Concert?

All weekend we are in quaint Carrington, except ....

... our Fabulous Friday Night Concert is back at the auspicious Harold Lobb Auditorium at the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music in Newcastle City. We are proud (and grateful!) to once again have been sponsored by The University of Newcastle for our opening night show.

The Friday Night Concert is our main separately ticketed event featuring 4 wonderful nationally renowned acts, all leaders in their respective genres.

The Tuckshop Ladies

Our Friday night headline act, The Tuckshop Ladies, are greeted at festivals around Australia with window-rattling applause, shouts, and cheers, sporting a mere ukulele, a bass uke, and a wicked silliness. Their improvisational spontaneity and witty song-writing veers from silliness, to the absurd, to reflective seriousness.
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​Their love for their audience, their craft, and each other is palpable, infectious, and deeply intimate as if we were all at a party enjoying the craic and a laugh.​
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You'll leave having had a crying/laughing party and capped it off by inexplicably buying the obligatory tea towel merch.

AJ Leonard and Jenny Rowlands

In Newcastle we've been privileged to have been gobsmackingly virtouosed and taught by AJ and Jenny since 2010. AJ's effortless ukulele wizardry has we mere uke mortals spellbound, whilst Jenny calmly provides the most sublime perfectly-played uke accompaniment - cello. Renew the spell this 2026 Newkulele Festival in our feature concert in the Harold Lobb Auditorium concert.

Bob Corbett and the Roo Grass Band

Newcastle is a buzz of a place to live if you like your music live, diverse and acoustic. One of our local gems is Bob Corbett and his high skill compadres in the Roo Grass Band. We are thrilled to have these guys on the bill for Friday, after 16 years as one of Newcastle's most beloved.

The Ukastle Ukestra

As is right and true for our opening concert, you are welcomed by Australia's premier community ukulele group - The Ukastle Ukestra. From our national beginnings at the 2011 Melbourne Ukulele Festival (winners of the illustrious and mysterious Golden Ukulele!) to trouncing the competition in the 2025 National Folk Festival's Infinite Song Contest, the Ukastle Ukestra has shown its discipline beyond the realms of normal ukulele. We have amazing lead singers, beautiful harmonies, and well arranged ukulele parts, all played by everyday people like yourselves.

Keep your eyes peeled for our tickets going on sale very soon!

Only 86 days to go until our opening concert!