Make Music Day to Ring in Summer with a Worldwide Event

Make Music Day, the worldwide festival of making music held annually on the summer solstice, has announced the return of its vast program with more than 5,000 live and free music-making events across the U.S. scheduled for Friday, June 21.

Launched in France in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique, Make Music Day has become a global event, celebrated by millions of people in more than 2,000 cities around the world, including 154 cities in the U.S., where it has spread widely after debuting in New York in 2007. Held on the longest day of the year, the world’s largest annual music event celebrates and promotes the natural music maker in everyone, regardless of age or skill level.

Last year, 117 U.S. cities organized 4,791 free Make Music events on June 21, with more than 100 concerts each in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York, Madison, Wisconsin, and Salem, Oregon. In 2024, another 50 U.S. communities will join Make Music Day for the first time. New Jersey is launching new Make Music Day initiatives in Englewood, Newark, Ocean City and Paterson, sponsored by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, while Wisconsin has grown to encompass 24 Make Music chapters throughout the state and Texas, through its Music Friendly Texas initiative, will feature 14 celebrations from Laredo to Dallas. Other cities like Orlando and Tallahassee in Florida and Salt Lake City are also beginning this year, bringing the total to more than 150 Make Music celebrations across the country and over 2,000 around the world.

Make Music Day is presented in the U.S. by the NAMM Foundation.

“We are thrilled with the continued growth of our Make Music Day partnership that celebrates the joy of making music worldwide,” said John Mlynczak, NAMM president and CEO. “The collaborative efforts of NAMM member companies and local partnerships all over the globe reach hundreds of thousands of music makers and deliver an amplified message that creating music is a precious element of daily living that unites communities around the world.”

Among the many thousands of grassroots music events on June 21, opportunities for everyone to participate will abound. In Milwaukee for instance, Make Music Day will feature the world premiere of Baby You, a public art event commissioned by the Przekrój Foundation of Warsaw, Poland, in which a massive 112-foot long hot air balloon in the shape of a sleeping newborn will be inflated and rise on the shore of Lake Michigan, accompanied by a new a cappella choral work by composer Michael Schachter for hundreds of amateur singers.

And in a returning global highlight, Make Music, Make Friends will connect 60 classes of school children aged 7-13 from Australia, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, U.K., and the U.S. on Make Music Day. Classes from each country will create musical greeting videos and share them with students from other countries. The students will watch the musical messages on June 21 and gain exposure to different regions and cultures.

makemusicday.org