A look at the history and significance behind World Music Day

The first Fête de la Musique was inaugurated in Paris on June 21, 1982.

The Fête de la Musique , also known as ‘World Music Day’ or ‘Make Music Day’ is an annual festival that takes place on June 21. With it’s origins in France, the event is now celebrated in more that 120 countries including India, Australia, Italy, Kenya, Brazil , the United States and Japan, to name a few. The festival aims to celebrate music as an art form and an unifying tool to bring about change in society.

On June 21, 1982, the summer solstice, the first Fête de la Musique was inaugurated in Paris.

In 1981, French Culture Minister Jack Lang had named Maurice Fleuret as Director of Music and Dance. Fleuret had studied and popularized diverse music, organizing festivals and events in Europe and Asia. He aimed to bring music together in a sound liberation movement, coneptualising that "Music will be everywhere and the concert nowhere".

In 1982, through a survey conducted Lang and Fleuret concluded that musical events included only a minority of the population. They decided to organise Fête de la Musique, a large-scale event for all musicians to express themselves and for the people to come together discovering music.

In 1985, during the European year of music ,World Music Day was first celebrated outside France. By 1995 , almost 85 countries across five continents celebrated World Music Day. A charter signed in 1997, now includes tenets for all countries to abide by if they wish to participate in the festival .

Significance
Over 1000 cities across the world celebrate this festival. Live music is continuously played and musicians are urged to collaborate with each other in public spaces.

Under the tagline "Faites de la musique" ("Make music"), which is a homophone of the phrase "Fête de la musique," both amateur and professional musicians are encouraged to play in the streets. All concerts must be free and musicians play without compensation. This is done to make more genres of music available to the general public. This is followed by most of the participating countries.

The theme for this year is ‘Music on the Intersections’ to draw attention to how music can influence individuals from different communities to come together. The day also helps draw attention to different styles of music, from popularising traditional music to develop new music styles such as techno, synthwave.