Berlin, Brussels, New York: forty years after its creation, the “Music Festival” is celebrated in more than a hundred countries, without however reaching the same scale as in France, where it is the result of a political will.
«In the rest of the world, it is organized by foundations, associations, Alliances Françaises or local cultural figures.», explains Charitini Karakostaki, sociologist at the University of Liège. Author of a thesis on the subject, she points out that, in other countries, no political leader has invited people to make music in the street.
From Berlin to Athens via New York
One of the first attempts to export this festival took place in 1985 in Athens, then designated European Capital of Culture. “What a fiasco“Summarizes the sociologist, the townspeople having not responded to the call. And, since then, this party is almost non-existent in Greece.
On the other hand, in Germany, where the French Institute in Munich had given the impetus in the 1980s, it gradually spread, gaining in force with its first celebration in Berlin in 1995. In this federal country, where each of the 16 States regional (Länder) is responsible for its own cultural policy, it is not at all celebrated in the same way according to the cities.
«In the German capital, the Fête de la musique – the French name has been kept to recall its origin and a certain savoir-vivre – the city-state decided in 2018 to assume financial responsibility for it.», explains Björn Döring, coordinator of the event in Berlin.
In New York, it was initiated by the American Aaron Friedman who, after spending a year in France, decided to launch “Make Music Day New York” in 2007. In translating the name of the event, he insisted on the participation of all amateur musicians but abandoned the idea of a party. “Gradually Make Music spread to other cities in the United States, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, United Kingdom, China», raconte Aaron Friedman.
In Belgium, as in Switzerland, the Fête de la Musique is above all present in the French-speaking part of the country, as well as in Brussels, a bilingual city where free concerts take place from June 17 to 22.
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