The Big House's 10th Birthday ukulele weekend is a 3 night event at the luxurious 4-star North Lakes Hotel in Penrith, taking place on 7-10 February, 2025. Since the first Big House residential weekend in February 2015, these events have been great fun, informative, comfortable, well organised and friendly. We'd love to see you for our birthday weekend, which this time is extended from 2 to 3 nights.

Please note - no discount codes can be used with this booking.

Event Tickets (excluding accommodation) cost:

£549 for two people sharing and staying in the hotel for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including food, entertainment, performances and workshops. You’ll need to book and pay for the hotel room separately, see below.

£274.50 for a single person staying in the hotel including food, entertainment, performances and workshops. You’ll need to book and pay for the hotel room separately, see below.

£274.50 per person for non resident tickets including food, entertainment, performances and workshops (but excluding breakfast). You can of course stay at one of many of Penrith’s other hotels and use this option.

Evening tickets may be put on sale at a later date, once numbers for residents and full weekend guests are known.

Accommodation

The hotel is lovely, well run, excellently maintained and luxurious. Accommodation at the hotel is available for the three nights of our event - you must book this directly with North Lakes Hotel. We have reserved a large block of rooms for this purpose at a preferential rate. Rooms at this four star venue include access to the pool and spa facilities. Costs are:

£150 per night per double or twin room, including bed and breakfast (a total of £450 for two people)

£133 per night for a single occupancy double room, including bed and breakfast (a total of £399).

When you have booked your event ticket here, you can book your room by contacting the hotel’s reservations number 01768 868111. Reservations staff who deal with event bookings work Monday - Friday. Please state you are staying for the ukulele event to ensure you get the cheaper rate.

TO CONFIRM - If you’d like to stay at the hotel you need to 1) Book your ticket here, 2) Book your room with the hotel.

What’s On

Friday 7 February

Residents can check in from 3pm. The event begins at 5.30pm with a welcome meeting. The evening includes a big strum and singalong, hot buffet meal, dancing with The Rhubarb Thieves ceilidh band and an open mic.

Saturday 8 February

There’s a packed programme from 9.45am, including workshops for all and a Big Strum and Singalong with the event songbook and local group Ukes Akimbo. Lunch and 4-course gala dinner are included, with the day concluding in the function room with a concert featuring Anarchy in the Ukulele and Zoe Bestel. We'll conclude with the return of the Late Night Speakeasy, with magic, jokes, music and shenanigans.

Sunday 11 February

Sunday sees further included workshops, jam sessions, lunch, an open mic competition, evening meal and performances from The Hedge Inspectors and Warehouse of Thieves.

Monday 12 February

For residents, after breakfast we'll say our goodbyes.

Notes and Useful Information

Staying at the event hotel is ideal, but it is centrally located so you don’t have to stay there. You can get a weekend ticket and choose an alternative place to stay, if for example, an Airbnb or cosy B&B is your preference. The Ukulele Events team and will be staying on site at the venue.

Residents stay on a full board basis. Those with non resident tickets have all food included apart from breakfast. Workshops are included in all ticket prices.

The ticket prices are the same for residents and non-residents - but choosing the correct option will help us when checking our records with the hotel's records. This is a luxury hotel with efficient staff, but all the same... we like to double check everything is right for our guests!

There is a full programme from 5.30pm on the Friday evening through to Monday lunchtime. We will require the function room for short periods for soundchecks, but this will be minimal. All of the activities are optional.

The programme is subject to minor changes and further (good!) announcements.

Example Prices

If you are staying at the hotel and sharing one room, you would require one two-person ticket at £549 (purchased here). Your accommodation, booked directly with the hotel, would be £150 per night, a total of £450. Your total cost for two is £998.

If you are staying at the hotel on a single occupancy basis, you would require one single residents ticket at £274.50. Your accommodation, booked directly with the hotel, would be £133 per night, a total of £399. Your total cost is £673.50. The hotel does not have single rooms - so you will be staying in a double room on a single occupancy basis.

If you are not staying at the hotel, you require a non-residents ticket which costs £274.50. This allows you access to all of the entertainment, including all food apart from breakfast.

The Venue

The North Lakes is a 4-star luxury spa hotel. Residents at the hotel (only) will have access to the pool and spa facilities. We have a dedicated function room for the venue, plus other spaces in the hotel for sessions for use when soundchecks are taking place. These will be pointed out at the welcome meeting.

There is plentiful parking at the hotel, which is free for those attending this event. The hotel is located conveniently for the M6 and A66, while Penrith’s west coast main line station is a 10 minute walk away.

World of Ukes will have an on-site shop, open at various times during the programme, with a selection of ukuleles and accessories on sale. If you would like to see anything in particular when you visit, please get in touch in advance and this can be arranged.

Unfortunately the hotel’s event and restaurant spaces are not dog-friendly. The hotel does have a small number of dog friendly rooms - please ask when booking. But unfortunately no dogs can be brought into the event space itself.

Cancellations

Event tickets can be cancelled if your tickets can first be resold. We expect this event to be oversubscribed, so we’ll help you to do this if required.

That’s all the useful info… but if you think of anything missing that you’d like to know about, please let us know via the contact form.