Fête de la Musique
A peek at my favorite French holiday.
It’s a 11:30pm and I just walked home from our local Fête de la Musique celebration — which was still going strong, helped by the fact that it only got dark about 30 minutes ago. Fête de la Musique might be my favorite French holiday — assuming the weather is decent, it’s the day I see the most people out in the street celebrating. This photo was taken at 10:00pm:
Here’s a brief history of the holiday taken straight from wikipedia:
In October 1981, Maurice Fleuret became Director of Music and Dance at the French Ministry of Culture. He applied his reflections to the musical practice and its evolution: "the music everywhere and the concert nowhere". When he discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people, one young person out of two, played a musical instrument, he began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets. It first took place in 1982 in Paris as the Fête de la Musique.
Ever since, the festival has become an international phenomenon, celebrated on the same day in more than 700 cities in 120 countries, including India, Germany, Italy, Greece, Russia, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Canada, the United States, the UK, and Japan.
In France, communities both large and small celebrate Fête de la Musique. We began our evening at a nearby village called Putanges-le-Lac. They had one stage, and it was set up in the center of town outside a locally beloved restaurant.
Our niece Sophie opened the night’s performance with a short set, and then she was joined by our son Oscar, and our Dutch friend Gijsbert, for another set. It was so great! Sophie said it was the first time in 3 years that she has been on a stage performing. Here are a couple of clips:
After their set, we hung out and listened to two more groups play, and then we came back to Argentan to enjoy the celebrations here. We walked around town and saw at bands playing on a dozen different stages, plus watched a really great drum corps parade up our main street (I can hear them drumming nearby while I type this).
It was a hot evening, about 90 degrees (which is unusually hot for this area, and for this late in the day), but the streets were packed with people anyway. It was so much fun running into friends and neighbors, and hearing performances from people we know. I’m headed to bed after I hit publish on this note, but I’ll put more clips from our evening on my Instagram Stories tomorrow.
This holiday is such a great way to officially welcome summer! If you’re ever in France on June 21st, wherever you are staying, make sure to get outside and enjoy Fête de la Musique.
Happy Summer Solstice! Are you doing anything to celebrate the new season?
kisses,
Gabrielle
Our city had a wonderful Pride Parade this morning and it was a wonderfully festive, positive, and inclusive event. My favorite parade entry was the multi-generational marching band playing Pink Pony Club.
On my first trip to France/Paris my friend & I stumbled onto this having no idea what was going on. (Before smart phones) It was magical to turn a corner and find yet another band performing in the street and seemingly everyone outside.