24.06.2019
Text: Yetkin Nural
Collage: Sadi Güran
Celebrated for the first time in Paris, France in 1982, World Music Day has been expanding into new countries and cities ever since. This year, as always, World Music Day coincides with the summer solstice, 21st June. Diverging from any other international music day and music festival with its unique vision and inclusiveness towards everyone who engages with music, here is everything you need to know about World Music Day.
*World Music Day was celebrated for the first time in 1982, in France under the initial name ‘Fête de la Musique’ (Festival of Music). Day’s slogan, which is homophonic with the day’s name, was ‘Faites de la Musique’ (Make Music). This is why the day now is celebrated under synonyms like Music Day, Make Music Day and World Music Day.
*Celebrated annually since 1982 on the summer solstice, 21st June, World Music Day was founded by French composer, music journalist, radio programmer and festival organizer Maurice Fleuret, who became the director of dance and music that year with the request of period’s French minister of culture, Jack Lang. After Fleuret found out that a research project in France showed one of two in French youth was playing a music instrument, he started to dream about how to get these young musicians into streets to share their music. Later on, this dream was realized in World Music Day.
*What differentiates World Music Day from a regular music festival or global music phenomenon actually comes from its initial vision. World Music Day invites everyone to parks, streets and all public spaces to share their music without discriminating the genre or the professionality of the musician. In fact, initiatives like Mass Appeal in United States instigates people that have never touched a music instruments to give their first performances.
*World Music Day is now celebrated in more than 120 countries, including China, India, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Greece, and in over 1.000 cities.
*Organized by different local groups and initiatives in different cities, World Music Day celebrations are bound together under two main principles. First, all performances are open to public and free. Second is that the musicians who give performances for World Music Day devote their time voluntarily, without charge.
*The non-profit organization Make Music Alliance helps promotion of the World Music Day activities within the member cities and matches musicians who are looking for partners to jam together. There is also downloadable PDF on Make Music Day website to guide people that live in non-member cities, but still want to organize their World Music Day events.
*There is also a younger sister to World Music Day: Make Music Winter. Celebrated since 2011 in New York, Make Music Winter also creates a platform for free, open air music events and performances that take place in public places, even encouraging audiences to take part in these music performances.