World Music Day goes all the way back to 1982. Maurice Fleuret, French composer, music journalist and director of music and dance in the Ministry of Culture, promoted the creation of various music events. One of his ideas was a new kind of musical holiday – a day when free, live music would be playing everywhere from street corners to mountaintops and everyone was invited to join.

Fleuret set the summer solstice, June 21, to be the day when the musical holiday is celebrated and called the event “Fête De La Musique”, which in French means “festival of music.” “Fête De La Musique” is also a homophone of “Faites de la musique” (“make music”). The latter became the slogan of the festival.

Reach and Impact

Fête De La Musique started as an annual event that was held only in France and then became World Music Day, or Make Music Day, that’s observed in more than 130 countries and over 1000 cities around the globe to this day.

The goal of this holiday is to provide thousands of free concerts through the day and encourage all kinds of musicians to participate. Young and old, amateur and professional, musicians of any background and musical persuasion are welcome to join the celebration and share their love for music with family, friends, neighbors and complete strangers!

How to Celebrate World Music Day

In the 40 years since the festival was first held, there have been many official events in different cities and countries. Taking part in a local event is one of the best ways to celebrate this holiday. Check for the Music Day events in your city and join as a musician or as a listener.

If there are no events in your town or a live performance is not your cup of tea, playing, practicing and making music at home are also great ways to celebrate Music Day. Use LALAL.AI to extract different parts (vocal and instrumental tracks, drums, piano, etc.) from existing compositions and use them in your songs, mixes and mashups.

Whichever way you choose, the most important thing today is to make music!

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