Fête de la Musique: there's music in the air

The Fête de la Musique – the European & Worldwide Music Day – is an annual festival held on 21 June, the start of summer. It transforms cities around the globe into theatres of enchantment and magical sounds.

It sounds simple. All the events are free and open to the public. All the musicians waive their fee. All the concerts take place in unusual venues – mostly outdoors – and everyone is welcome at the Fête de la Musique, amateurs and professionals alike representing all genres. That this formula would grow into a worldwide movement that reaches out to millions of people every year must have been beyond the wildest dreams of the then French Culture Minister Jack Lang, who organised the first Fête de la Musique in Paris in 1982. The seed was sown and now the event unites people in over 340 towns and cities worldwide, 60 of them in Europe and 22 in Germany – from Annaberg-Buchholz, Berlin and Bremen to Weimar, Weingarten and Wolfenbüttel. There's nothing that can't be heard – bands, orchestras, choirs, soloists and DJs perform music of every genre. One other thing remains the same, however: the Fête de la Musique is a non-profit, non-commercial event. Like everything at the Fête de la Musique, it's about friendship, joy, respect – in short, humanity in music.