Tell us four anecdotes about the Fête de la Musique

Friday is June 21, music festival, a special moment for all amateur musicians who will liven up the streets of cities. The opportunity to reveal four things we don’t know about this celebration.

The Music Festival takes place Friday June 21, at the time of the summer solstice, in France and around the world. Since 1982, this festival born in France has also spread internationally, to 120 countries. Here are four anecdotes about this event.

1 How did the idea come about?

In 1982, Minister of Culture Jack Lang ordered an investigation into French cultural practices. He discovered that five million people play a musical instrument, while far fewer go to concerts or festivals. Jack Lang and Maurice Fleuret, his music director, therefore decided to launch a free, open-air event that would put all musicians, including amateurs, in the spotlight. They choose June 21, the first day of summer.

But this date also has to do with Radio France. At the end of the 1970s, a presenter from France Musique, Joël Cohen, offered “Saturnales de la musique”: a special musical program, broadcast all night during the winter solstice (December 21) and the summer solstice. (June 21st). However at the time, the boss of France Musique was Maurice Fleuret, the same one who became director of music at the Ministry of Culture a few years later. In 2015, Jack Lang thanked Joël Cohen for his idea.

2 How did the first edition go?

The very first attempt almost was a flop. Jack Lang even said later that it was “the biggest stage fright of (his) life”. It must be said that the first edition was prepared in a bit of a hurry, and no one believed it. The prefect of Paris even wanted to ban it, and the television channels refused to get involved. However, it was a success: nearly a million people took to the streets to play or listen to music.

3 Why the Festival almost disappeared in 1986

During the first cohabitation under François Mitterand, with Jacques Chirac at Matignon, the right-wing Prime Minister thought of canceling the Party to mark his break with the left-wing politics of recent years. It was Maurice Fleuret, still director of music at the Ministry of Culture, who convinced the government not to do it. The ministry announces only ten days before that the Festival will take place.

4 How the Fête de la Musique became an international celebration

Two years after its creation, in 1984, it was exported to Belgium. Then in 1985, for the European Year of Music, it reached Greece, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Italy. In 2007, 85 countries on all continents celebrate music on June 21. Today, “World Music Day” is celebrated in more than 120 countries!