La Fête de la Musique

June 21 is a very important day in France... not only is it the first day of summer, it is also La Fête de la Musique = National Music Day. How amazing!!!! I think every country should have a day like this!!!!!

The Fête de la Musique, also known as World Music Day, is a music festival taking place on June 21.

History

The idea was first broached in 1976 by American musician Joel Cohen, then employed by the national French radio station France Musique. Cohen proposed an all-night music celebration at the moment of the summer solstice. The idea was taken up by French Music and Dance director Maurice Fleuret for Minister of Culture Jack Lang in 1981 and first took place in 1982.

Its purpose is to promote music in two ways:

• Amateur and professional musicians are encouraged to perform in the streets. The slogan Faites de la musique (Make music), a homophone of Fête de la Musique, is used to promote this goal.
• Many free concerts are organized, making all genres of music accessible to the public. Two of the caveats to being sanctioned by the official Fête de la Musique organization in Paris are that all concerts must be free to the public, and all performers donate their time for free.

Despite there being a large tolerance about the performance of music by the general public of amateurs in public areas after usual hours, the noise restrictions still apply, and can cause some establishments to be forbidden to open and broadcast music out of their doors without prior authorization. So the prefectures of police in France can still forbid them to install any audio hardware in the street.^[1]

Locations

The Fête de la Musique began in France and has since spread to many countries:

• Armenia (Yerevan)^[2]
• Argentina^{[citation needed]}
• Australia (Brisbane)^[3]
• Belgium^{[citation needed]}
• Canada^[4]
• China^{[citation needed]}
• Colombia^{[citation needed]}
• Costa Rica^{[citation needed]}
• Ecuador^{[citation needed]}
• Germany^[5]
• Greece^{[citation needed]}
• India^[6],
• Iraqi Kurdistan (Sulaymaniyah),^{[citation needed]}
• Israel (Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv),^{[citation needed]}
• Jordan^{[citation needed]}
• Lebanon^{[citation needed]}
• Lithuania^[7]
• Luxembourg^[8]
• Malaysia^{[citation needed]}
• Maldives^{[citation needed]}
• Morocco^{[citation needed]}
• Pakistan^{[citation needed]}
• Philippines^[9]
• Romania^{[citation needed]}
• Serbia^{[citation needed]}
• Switzerland^[10], ^[11], ^[12]
• Sri Lanka^{[citation needed]}
• Thailand^[13]
• Trinidad and Tobago^{[citation needed]}
• the United Kingdom (Glasgow^{[citation needed]}, Edinburgh^{[citation needed]} and London^[14])
• the USA
  • Massachusetts held its first festival in 2008 with the Make Music Cambridge event, transforming plazas, patios and alleys around Harvard Square into platforms for hundreds of amateur and professional musicians.
  • New York City^[15]
  • Pasadena, California with the Make Music Pasadena event.
• Venezuela^{[citation needed]}

I took to the streets in my local neighbourhood of Clamart to partake in the activities!! It was such a great atmosphere!!!!

This is the view out of my bedroom window...

There were kids dancing....
Rappers rapping....

People dining...


Crowds spectating....


Rockers rocking....

And students performing. This was so great... there' s a music school here in Clamart and the teacher who is second from the left had his students up on the stage performing. His concept was great... he would start by just giving them a beat to work with, then they'd all improvise to the beat and then he would start singing a song... and it sounded great!!!! I have some cool videos too!!!

I went up to him after and inquired about his lessons...unfortunately they only do semesters... not private tutoring :( which is what I was looking for....but I still liked his style!
HAPPY FETE DE LA MUSIQUE!!!!!!