Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Grandparent's Day, name it and the world has a day dedicated to everything it loves. How could music hold back? While I looked through my social media and saw my feed covered in World Music Day posts and events, I realized I don't know how these festivities began. So, I did a little digging up.

Fête de la Musique

This phrase translates to 'Party of the Music'. This was an initiative that was started by the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, and by Maurice Fleuret, and was first celebrated in Paris in 1982. Music Day later became celebrated in 120 countries around the world. When the concept of Fête de la Musique was being conceived, the French Ministry of Culture believed, and applied their reflections to the musical practice and its evolution:

"the music everywhere and the concert nowhere"

When they discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people, one child out of two, played a musical instrument, they began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets. The celebration was designed to promote music in two different ways through World Music Day:

• Amateur and professional musicians are encouraged to perform in the streets, under the slogan "Faites de la musique" ("Make music"), a homophone of Fête de la Musique.
• Many free concerts are organized, making all genres of music accessible to the public. Two of the caveats to being sanctioned by the official Fête de la Musique organization in Paris are that all concerts must be free to the public, and all performers donate their time for free. This is true of most participating cities as well.

The festival is now celebrated in over 700 cities in over 12 countries. The French Government organizes the huge party for the World Music Day but the Ministry of Culture makes it a point to create many such free events to increase the emotions and love associated with music while spreading music itself. We're looking forward to music growing louder and louder until it's the loudest in India. We're hoping this year, many people and the governing bodies take up the joy of spreading music across all genres too!