World Music Day - Fête de la Musique

Hello everyone, today is the 21st of June, a day that marks the first day of Summer, but more importantly! The day of the 'Fête de la Musique'! 'World Music Day'. This year we are celebrating the 40th edition of this exceptional event.

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Let's go back to the origin of this festival.

I don't know if you know it, but this event (which later became international) was created and launched on 21 June 1982, on the initiative of the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang

But this idea did not appear by magic, we have to go back a few years, to 1976.

This festival was imagined by the American musician Joel Cohen, who was working at the time on the French radio station called 'France Musique' where he proposed the 'Saturnales de la Musique' on 21 June and 21 December to mark the two Solstices (Summer and Winter). Initially planned in Western Paris and Toulouse (in France)

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Why June 21?

Because it is the time of the year when the day is longest, so the night is shortest, which allows people to play music, sing and dance until dawn.

Maurice Fleuret, Director of Music and Dance, under the authority of the French Ministry of Culture, whose Minister was Jack Lang, had the idea of naming this event 'Faites de la Musique', before changing it to 'Fête de la Musique'. He imagined a free, spontaneous and popular event, which would bring together all types of music "without hierarchy of genres or origins":

• "La Musique sera partout et le concert nulle part"/"Music will be everywhere and the concert nowhere".
• "Une libération sonore, une ivresse, un vertige qui sont plus authentiques, plus intimes, plus éloquents que l'art"/"A liberation of sound, an exhilaration, a vertigo that is more authentic, more intimate, more eloquent than art".

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The event was quickly exported internationally. Ten years after its launch, in 1992, 85 countries have organised their own World Music Day on all five continents.

In 1985, it was the European Year of Music, which later led to the establishment of the "Fête Européenne de la Musique". The principle of this charter signed in 1997 in Budapest, now applies to all countries, including those outside Europe, that wish to be associated with the Fête de la Musique.

Today, this event is organised by more than 120 countries throughout the world, and in more than 350 major cities, for the pleasure of music lovers, musicians, but also tourists! who can discover new artists, or new local musical cultures!

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A brief history of the countries/city that organised their first Music Festival:

• Greece - Athens - 1985
• Belgium - 1985
• China - 1992
• Germany - Berlin - 1995
• Colombia - Medellín - 2003
• USA - New York - 2006
• Canada - 2008
• Sweden - Stockholm - 2010

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Today, 21st June, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 'Fête (Faites) de la Musique'! (Or 46th edition if we count Joel Cohen's Saturnalia of Music)

If you are a musician, get out of your house, set up wherever you want, a park, a bar, a public square, a courtyard, whatever place seems most appropriate and play your favourite instrument(s).

If you are a music lover, take the opportunity to wander around the cities to discover the talents of artists who are passionate about their art, who live through their music, the power of what it can transmit, the emotions it will make you experience.

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Music is one of the most beautiful things that Man has mastered since the dawn of time and will live on until the end of time, no matter what the musical instrument, as long as there are women and men devoted to this art, these bewitching melodies will follow us everywhere, at all times and for millions of years to come!

Celebrate this Summer Solstice 2022, live the music, vibrate to its frenzied rhythms! It's only one day a year! And it can be the most important day of each year.

Happy Fête de la Musique/World Music Day to all!

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Source pics : Google