France-tastic

Every year on the longest day of the year (yesterday! oh no, the darkness is on the way back!!) the Fête de la Musique is celebrated. This "Party/ Festival of Music" started off in 1982 here in France, and has since spread to all over Europe, and apparently even "100 countries on 5 continents" but the Paris event remains the largest. The Fête is a huge community event of random musical events performed in random places all night long. It is a loud and crazy mix of everything from lust metal and thrash death to caribbean orchestral to jazz jamming to electro-rap DJs to classical choral, grand concert halls to a drum kit on the street corner, and everything is free! Some events are huge, with big proper stages and tens of thousands of fans in front (Mel C was a particular attraction on the main stage at Bastille this year!), some are just a couple of people clutching lyrics having a bit of a sing-along. A lot of bars and cafés get in on the act too, and have bands playing.





It's an absolutely fantastic atmosphere, everyone just out to enjoy themselves and to see some live music that they otherwise wouldn't. It is particularly cool that unlike big music festivals etc, this is mostly amateur musicians getting the chance to play in front of really receptive crowds that they otherwise wouldn't be able to reach. Anyone at all can stage an event at the Fête, you don't even need to be good, you just need to have your own equipment, get organised enough to sign up, pick a street corner, and hope that a few people walk past and stop and listen. Time to dust off my old recorder!

Also people making and selling Mojitos on the side of the road!