Southampton Ukulele Jam are playing the ukulele together for 24+ hours to raise money for 4 fabulous local charities: No Limits, Yellow Door, The Society of St James and Mountbatten Hampshire.

When donating, you will be asked which charity you wish to support. We want everyone to get the same amount by the end of the event, so if you feel able to PLEASE DONATE IN A WAY THAT KEEPS THE FUNDRAISING TOTALS EQUAL. Thanks!

The longest jam a jam has ever jammed!

Southampton Ukulele Jam (SUJ), the hardest working ukulele jam in Southampton, are planning to set a UK record for the longest jam in the UK “The UKe-athon: Longest Marathon Ukulele Jam (UK)”

With a history of taking every chance to think up and deliver crazy ideas, including making its own documentary, recording in a professional studio and doing a TED Talk, SUJ are at it again.

Starting at 10:00 on Saturday the 9th of August 2025 in the historic and beautiful God’s House Tower ‘the jam’ plan to try to play for more than 24hrs, continuously.

Our event has four main aims:

1. To raise money for Southampton charities supporting young people, people made vulnerable by domestic abuse and homelessness, and people requiring palliative care.

2. To shine a light on all that is fantastic about Southampton. Its people, its generosity, it’s fun, its communities, its local businesses.

3. To reaffirm Southampton’s place at the centre of the Ukulele Universe.

4. To continue SUJ’s mission to “make the world a tiny bit better by playing good songs, moderately well on tiny instruments (for a looooooooooooong time)”.

One of SUJ’s founder members, Colin McUke, said: “We first got the idea for this after we broke our own PB at this year’s Southampton Marathon, playing for 4hrs 13mins and 50secs. We wondered how long we could actually play for. Well………. We’re going to find out!”

After consulting with Guinness World Records and realising their rules didn’t match the ethos of the jam, SUJ have decided to go their own way.

They hope to set a challenge, and benchmark, for other jams in the UK so have developed a set of transferable ‘rules’ that focus on working as a collective, allowing people to participate as much or as little as they want or can.

Fuelled only by an endless supply of enthusiasm, determination to raise as much money as possible for local charities, and maybe a little bit of coffee and cake … can they do it?

You can watch the event in person at God’s House Tower, where there will also be an exhibition about SUJ, or ‘livestream’ on YouTube to see if the jam can stay awake and tuneful in the wee small hours of the night.