1. Home
2. Opinion

World Music Day

Young Bites. Dated: 6/21/2018 8:39:17 AM

Make Music is a free celebration of music around the world on June 21st. Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music is open to anyone who wants to take part. Every kind of musician young and old, amateur and professional, of every musical persuasion — pours onto streets, parks, plazas, and porches to share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers. All of it is free and open to the public.
Music brings the world closer. Not just words, there are notes, songs, and tunes to express every emotion. To mark its significance, music lovers all across the globe get together to celebrate World Music Day on June 21 every year. Music Day is a connected set of free public events which takes place each year on the 21st June, in midsummer. Each year there are events in over 120 countries and 700 cities
World Music Day originated in France in 1982. Since then the idea has spread across the globe with each event holding to the same simple set of principles: that the day is held in the mid-summer solstice and that all concerts and events are free and accessible to the public. Typically this means that the music is brought out onto the streets, though venues are also encouraged to get in on the act!
To commemorate this year’s edition of World Music Day, Lagos has joined other cities in over 120 countries across the globe for a festival of free live music called Make Music Lagos. It is the Lagos edition of Make Music Day under the guidance of the US-based Make Music Alliance. At last year’s edition, Lagos music enthusiasts witnessed a collaboration of Mass Appeal, Learn to Play and Street Studio in multiple venue concerts. No fewer than 16 concerts will be hosted on the Music Day in various places in Lagos. We are honoured to see celebrities supporting the Make Music Day concept and who really want to see this worldwide movement take hold in the UK.
The French minister of culture Jack Lang conceived the idea of music through this fest and since then, it has been celebrated as the World Music Day. However, there is another theory about how the American musician Joel Cohen proposed the idea of an all-night music celebration in France to mark the beginning of the summer solstice in 1976 and since then, the entire world celebrates this day.
The day sheds light on the importance of music and how it helps people connect across borders. Various musicians perform for free and showcase the power of music on this day. Aspiring singers and young players mesmerise listeners by playing their instruments in public or recreational areas. It has slowly become a part of pop culture and this day is celebrated in more than 32 countries as one of the most important summer events.
To mark the day, around 150 artists from over 16 countries, including France, USA, Nepal, Spain, Italy, Thailand and India, will be performing at multiple venues across the city of Udaipur this year. The line-up promises to be an enthralling one. From Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy to Txarango, a Catalan fusion band, performing at the fest, the event promises to bring a bouquet of culturally-diverse music on a platter.
There’s nothing in the world like the sound of your favorite song coming on, it just gets right into your head and your body and makes you move. Or maybe it takes you on a journey to a faraway place and time, where you languish in a memory of times gone by and people who are no longer present. Then when you add in the cultural themes, the variety of instruments, and the forms of voice singing that can go along with it, music is a truly endless adventure. World Music Day celebrates this adventure and those that dare to take it. France’s Ministry of Culture dreamed up an idea for a new kind of musical holiday. They imagined a day where free, live music would be everywhere: street corners and parks, rooftops and gardens, store fronts and mountain tops. Uunlike a typical music festival, anyone and everyone would be invited to join and play music, or host performances. The event would take place on the summer solstice, June 21, and would be called Fête De La Musique. (In French, the name means both “festival of music” and “make music!”) Amazingly enough, this dream has come true. France shuts down on the summer solstice and musicians take over. Almost 8% of the country (5 million people) have played an instrument or sung in public for the Fête de la Musique. Let’s recall that World Music Day or Fête de la Musique has been created in 1982 by the Ministry of Culture and Communication. "Make Music" so tells the watchword which used to sound like everything but a slogan. This event gathering professional and amateur musicians and the attention paid to all genres of music become a popular event thanks to an immediate success. This event is the translation of a policy which tried to make way to amateur rock, jazz or traditional musicians and singers. The best way to Celebrate World Music Day is to spend the day listening to all your old favorites, and if you’re truly feeling adventurous start exploring YouTube for music from different cultures. You can explore Finnish and Hungarian, Italian and Mongolian, and then start digging into the folk music. With sources like these, it’s easier than ever to explore the panorama of musical experiences the world has to offer, and you can do it all from the comfort of your own home. Of course, you could always pick up an instrument and start adding your own voice to the choir! On that day, sidewalks, parks, community gardens, stores and more become impromptu musical stages for both amateur and professional musicians to showcase their talents. The Chairman, organising team for the Make Music Lagos festival, Adeola Akinyemi promised that this festival will be a success story for lovers of music.
All performances are FREE and open to the public. This is a fun and unique family event not to be missed!