Lee Urban, the event organizer, leads participants as they play in the lobby at The Westin Portland Harborview in Portland on Tuesday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
It was still pouring rain Tuesday morning when close to 100 ukulele players were planning to descend on Portland’s Congress Square Park. So Lee Urban, organizer of the flash mob, decided to ask Karl Whipple, general manager of The Westin Portland Harborview, if they could use the hotel lobby as their backup venue.
When Whipple asked what the date of the event would be, Urban responded, “Well, about 20 minutes.”
The hotel, which overlooks the park, was originally going to be used only as a vantage point for videographers to document the performance. Luckily for Urban and his fellow musicians, Whipple was more than happy to provide the Westin lobby as a stage.
At noon, Urban stood at the top of the lobby’s stairs and strummed between C and G7 chords on his ukulele (which is tie-dye patterned with a peace sign-shaped sound hole). Gradually, the other ukulele players stepped out from their “hiding places” on the hotel’s first floor and joined in on the chord progression. When the players had amassed in front of Urban, he called out, “Looks like we have a ukulele flash mob.”
With the mob officially begun, the participants launched into three songs: “Down by the Riverside,” “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “This Land is Your Land.” Before playing the last song, Urban paused to speak on the powerful message of the Woody Guthrie classic and to acknowledge the land as the home of the Wabanaki Nation.
Lee Urban, the event organizer, leads participants as they play in the lobby at The Westin Portland Harborview in Portland on Tuesday. They were forced indoors by Tuesday morning’s rain showers. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
During the performance, a couple dozen passersby – hotel guests and employees – became audience members, some taking video with their phones and even joining in singing.
“I was walking around the lobby and clusters of people with ukuleles started to gather,” said Larry Reilly, a concierge at the hotel. “I loved it. I’m a singer, so I loved jumping in and doing some harmony.”
The flash mob encored by repeating “When the Saints Go Marching In” and marching outside, where the rain had fizzled out.
Urban, who had been organizing the event since March, recruited players by sending “tons of emails” to friends and ukulele groups across the state, and participants ranged in age from seniors to toddlers. Diane Cohen, who was accompanied by her granddaughter, learned about the event through her involvement in the Maine Ukulele Gathering Society, which Urban founded during the pandemic and has been rehearsing virtually since.
Participants in a ukulele flash mob play in the lobby at The Westin Portland Harborview in Portland on Tuesday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
“It just was so nice to see so many different people, so many different ages, coming together over music and to just give a little bit of joy,” said Caroline DeBruyckere, the hotel’s marketing director.
Part of the purpose of the performance was to collect donations, through a basket passed around, for Ukuleles Heal the World, a Maine nonprofit started by Urban in 2017 that conducts free ukulele camps for disadvantaged children, each of whom ends the camp with a complimentary ukulele. The organization also teaches the instrument to military veterans, seniors and disabled young adults.
But for Urban, having a good time was the main motivation for organizing the event.
“(I) wanted to have a lot of fun, simple as that. Just wanted to have a lot of fun with a bunch of ukulele people,” Urban said. “(I) thought if we all get together – particularly in a ukulele flash mob – that would be some kind of fun.”
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