The “Fête de la Musique” has mass popular appeal. It’s become an annual rendez-vous that no-one wants to miss and each year it continues to attract phenomenal crowds throughout Paris, the provinces and the suburbs. Musicians spring up on every street corner, playing in the most prestigious or unexpected places. On June 21st you’ll find improvised concerts taking place in public squares, outside churches and in local parks as well as in the sumptuous courtyards of ministries and embassies. But everyone gets a look-in at the “Fête de la Musique” and besides playing in the lap of luxury, groups take their music into schools, hospitals and prisons too.

Vox pops in the street

- “I take part in the “Fête de la Musique” any way I can, singing, dancing or clowning around. For me, the “Fête de la Musique” is about friendship and solidarity, it’s about different races and different colours coming together in one big happy mix.”
- “It’s great! Music reaches across all kinds of borders. Everyone’s just out here together and colour doesn’t matter – you don’t care whether people are yellow or green! We’re just out here together on the streets, hanging out peacefully side by side, laughing and talking and forgetting all the usual bloody nonsense!”
- “I’ll tell you what we’re doing this year. I’m in this Raï group and we’ve got a band together. We contacted the local town hall and got ourselves a place to perform and we’re going to go down and play there later. After that, we’re going to hang out in town and walk about a bit, catch a rock group here and a punk group there. There’s a lot of different stuff going on!”
- “It’s brilliant! Everyone’s out here together in one big crowd. There’s no social divide or class difference. Everyone’s here for the music and that’s all that counts!”
- “When you’re listening to a concert, you forget everything. You’re not standing there thinking about how you’ve got no money and stuff like that. You’re here to listen to the group, dance and have a good time and that’s that. What’s good about the “Fête de la Musique” is that it’s free and it’s a real celebration!”

One thing’s for sure, when June 21st rolls round, the sound of music rings out loud and clear up and down the country. But the most exciting thing about the “Fête de la Musique” is you’re never quite sure what to expect – there’s a surprise line-up every year featuring the broadest possible mix of trends and musical styles! Different beats and rhythms ring out from neighbouring streets, crashing into each other at the crossroads and fusing into one big joyous melting-pot of sounds. And the wonderful thing about this is the “Fête de la Musique” goes on but never gets tired with age. On the contrary, in fact, new sounds come along and re-energise and revitalise it each year and the festival just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Take the 20th anniversary celebrations, for instance. This year musicians in over a hundred different countries round the world will be taking to the streets to celebrate the “Fête de la Musique”!

These days everyone’s embraced the “Fête de la Musique” to get their own voices heard. In fact, the Fête’s caught on so much at a grass roots level that we sometimes forget the festival was actually born from a political decision. It was launched by the French Ministry of Culture, which continues to work behind the scenes to keep the “Fête” alive. All year long French institutions including national and regional orchestras, music institutes, conservatoires and opera houses up and down the country are busy preparing for June 21st. While amateur associations such as choirs and brass bands are busy rehearsing and mobilising their networks, local associations and culture centres provide support for amateur and professional musicians. This year the Ministry of Culture has pushed the boat out to celebrate the “Fête de la Musique”, commissioning 7 composers to write works for the “Fête” and 80 graphic artists to work on posters for this special anniversary edition. As you can see from this hive of activity, the “Fête de la Musique” is not just something that happens one day a year. It’s an event that’s become an integral part of the French lifestyle as Catherine Tasca, the French Culture Minister, explains:

Catherine Tasca : 

"I believe that music – and by music I mean musical expression in all its great diversity – is a powerful language for the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. In a society such as ours, which has become increasingly cosmopolitan over the years, a lot of people place more trust in music than in words when it comes to communicating with one another. And that’s the reason the “Fête de la Musique” is such a fertile ground for exchange and, at the same time, discovery, and why it lives on, continually changing from year to year.
"The ‘humus’ of this 20th anniversary edition is obviously not the same as was used to make the first “Fête”. The ground’s richer than the first time round. In fact, I’d say it’s grown considerably richer over the years. And I think one of the main reasons the “Fête de la Musique” keeps attracting new audiences is because of the totally spontaneous side to it, because it takes place outside the venues traditionally reserved for cultural manifestations. The “Fete” is about bringing different genres and generations together and having them rub off on one another.
"Music is, by its very nature, multidisciplinary. It encompasses all genres, all eras and all sorts of different instruments and helps bring together people from different continents. The essence of music is profoundly cosmopolitan – it goes beyond any kind of imposed model or format. I believe that as we move towards increasing globalisation with all the strength and energy that brings, there’s also an essential need to maintain diversity of expression. And what better way to do that than through music? Music has shown itself to be an incredibly rich ground for the diversity of expression. And I think that’s the reason such a varied public keep coming back to “La Fête de la Musique” year after year, generation after generation.
"The other essential thing about “La Fête de la Musique” is that people can take part in it themselves. Of course, some forms of musical expression do not lend themselves to the spirit of the “Fête” as much as others. No-one can expect a choir of amateur singers or a group of young percussionists performing in a public square or school playground to be up to the same standard as international professionals. But that’s not the point. There are certain modes of expression where it’s obviously much more difficult for amateur musicians to be on the same footing as professional ones and establish a deep relationship with the public.
"I attended the first night of the “Salon de la musique” the other night and it opened with an concert which created an incredible musical atmosphere in the room. There were around 1,000 pupils from music schools up and down France up on stage together and they gave a brilliant performance of Ravel’s Bolero conducted by Marc-Olivier Dupin. The atmosphere in the concert hall was amazing – it was as if a huge tidal wave of music were suddenly unfurling over our heads! That for me was an example of people really coming together through music. It was a totally shared experience where there was no separation between the musicians and their audience. The audience were really with the musicians up on stage, they were totally caught up in the same wave of music and emotion, following every note of Ravel’s Bolero. And the “Fête de la Musique” has generated the same sort of wave of emotion over the years, breaking free of traditional codes and conventions, taking music out of its habitual venues and liberating the collective imagination.

There’s no way we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of this legendary festival of sound and rhythm without paying tribute to the late Maurice Fleuret, who was director of Music and Dance back when it all began in 1982. Jack Lang, who was Minister of Culture at the time, asked Maurice Fleuret to throw himself body and soul into becoming the director of ALL music. And Maurice Fleuret did just that, opening himself up to all sectors of the record industry and embracing everything from traditional accordion to rock, jazz, classical music, folk and French chanson. All musicians and all genres were to have their place in the new order, be they professional or amateur. It was at that moment that the walls of music came tumbling down!

Maurice Fleuret (1982)

"It’s not the “Fête de la Musique” every day, you know, despite what people think. Normally, musicians and musical genres are completely separated. Everyone’s shut up in their own little world, playing by themselves or with friends and they’ve got no idea of what’s going on in other musical spheres. So-called classical musicians don’t ever hang out with jazz musicians and jazz musicians look down on pop and ‘variété’ stars who in turn look down on those playing folk and traditional music in the French regions. It’s good for people to realise that there’s not just one music, but lots of different kinds of music that are all equally noble and worthy of our passion and interest.
Inviting all these different musicians to come out on the streets and play means that they become aware of each other’s existence, they get to know one another and recognise each other’s value. What’s more, the “Fête de la Musique” shows just how important a role music plays in day-to-day life for most French people. And I’m not just talking about the guy who sits there listening religiously to his radio or his record-player, but about people who are locked away in their rooms practising an instrument or singing scales. The “Fête de la Musique” is about showing that music is a collective art, an art that requires people to come together and pool their individual talents. It’s about gathering together in a public space – and what more public space could you there possibly be than the street?

So that’s what the “Fête de la Musique” is all about, putting music back on the streets where it belongs, inviting people to come along and share in its amazing richness and diversity. Maybe that’s just what everyone had been waiting for all along! Manu Dibango certainly remembers that famous first night in the summer of ‘82 when he went out onto the streets of Paris to listen to the music. Abandoning his role of professional musician, Manu became one of the audience that night, experiencing the joy of discovering other musicians’ work.

Manu Dibango

"There was ethnic music and other really elaborate stuff – every type of music imaginable! And there were hundreds of amateurs out on the streets, but ‘amateurs’ in the real sense of the word, people who were playing for the absolute love of music. Looking back, it was like walking around and experiencing a series of different ‘samples’ – to use a musical term that’s very much in vogue these days. At the “Fête de la Musique” you get the chance to go round and ‘sample’ all these different sounds, the kind of stuff you only get to hear once a year and you’ll never hear quite the same way again because things change from year to year. Different generations come along and then there are other things going on in life which mean that the “Fête de la Musique” is never the same from one year to the next!
There were all kinds of music out on the street that night, from string quartets to people playing the djembé. People got the chance to discover instruments that were around, but you never got to hear them. Instruments which were usually played in the heart of different ethnic communities. But all of a sudden the walls came tumbling down and you had all these amateur djembé-players out on the street, guys from different races and different backgrounds. For me, the djembé is an instrument which really sums up the spirit of the “Fête de la Musique” where all kinds of different music get mixed together. The sound of all those percussion instruments reaching this high-pitched crescendo was just absolutely amazing!

"It was when I played at the “Fête de la Musique” in Quebec, when I performed in Montreal on June 21st that I realised the amazing scope of the idea and got to see how the “Fête” had taken off outside France. Because we shouldn’t forget that’s what the “Fête de la Musique” is about as well. Even back in my homeland, Cameroon, people go out on the streets and play on the 21st and I’m sure the idea’s caught on in China too!
There was a real need for this festival lying dormant beneath the surface. You know the story of the princess being woken from her slumber by the magic prince? (Laughs) Well, this time round it was Jack Lang who waved the magic wand and woke something up! And the desire he woke was so obvious, it was staring us right in the face all along but we just couldn’t see it! Now the “Fête de la Musique” has become a ritual for everyone – it’s something that’s done us all a lot of good!

 On June 21st 2000 nearly 800,000 musicians took to the French streets to take part in the “Fête de la Musique” – and some 10 million music fans came out to hear them! What started out as a small French festival has got bigger and bigger over the years, spreading across international borders. In fact, these days the “Fête de la Musique” is a truly international affair celebrated in over 100 different countries worldwide. It’s amazing when you think that when the whole thing kicked off 20 years ago it was all down to a few people making a few decisions in the space of a few weeks!

The story began back in April 1982 when a report landed on the desk of Jack Lang, who was French Minister of Culture at the time. The report detailed the cultural practices of French people up and down the country - and it made truly fascinating reading! Much to Lang and his fellow ministers’ surprise, the figures showed that one in five French people, and one out of every two young French people, had sung or played a musical instrument at some point in their life. Lang reacted immediately, calling Maurice Fleuret and Christian Dupavillon into his office for a council of war. Lang had decided the French were obviously a lot more musical than they thought – and somebody needed to broadcast the news!

Jack Lang (excerpt from a France Inter news broadcast – 1982) : 

Those who are planning on going to bed early on June 21st had better think again – or buy a pair of earplugs or wait until well after 9pm to go to sleep! Because the day of the summer solstice is to become the “Fête de la Musique”. Jack Lang, the Minister of Culture, has come up with the bright idea of inviting all budding French musicians to come out into the street with their instruments and play them non-stop from 8.30pm to 9pm. And, tolerant neighbours permitting, they might even be allowed to play on after that! Radio and TV stations have been unanimous in coming out in support of the “Fête de la Musique”. François Lucazeau has been talking to Jack Lang about his innovative idea and he asked him whether he wasn’t running the risk of provoking a general cacophony on the streets on June 21st. The minister’s reply? “It’s better to have a bit of a cacophony on the streets than listen to the silence of deserted towns at night. (I believe) celebrating the arrival of summer with music, with all kinds of music, is an excellent way of bringing in the new season!”
"At 8pm on June 21st the evening will be given over to music. There’ll be all kinds of different groups playing in the streets – you’ll hear everything from rock bands and traditional French chanson groups to ensembles playing religious music! And I’ve heard on the grapevine that in a lot of towns local groups are planning to come out and play in squares and other public places where people normally like to gather in the evening.
"Well, I’m trying to put together a modest orchestra by rounding up a few government ministers and friends. I don’t know whether we’ll pull it off, but we’re certainly going to try!

Jacques Higelin, one of the Fête de la Musique’s most fervent fans and supporters, led a huge procession of people from the Place de la République to the Place de la Bastille in 1983, singing and dancing as he trailed over 30,000 music fans in his wake. This, as Alain Surans remembers, was very much the spirit of the “Fête” in those early years. Surans was working as adviser to Maurice Fleuret, Director of Music and Dance in France at the time. And he remembers what everyone at the ministry was working towards was to put on a festival which looked more like a spontaneous street demo than a planned and programmed event.

Alain Surans :
"I have this one particular memory of the “Fête de la Musique”. It wasn’t the first festival or anything, but it was definitely the one that marked me the most. It must have been back in ‘83 or ‘84 and it was the first concert organised as part of that year’s “Fête de la Musique”. The concert in question was performed by this brass band in a small coal mining town in Lorraine. The entire band decided to set off at 5 in the morning to play as they changed shifts at the local mine. It was one of the last working pits in Lorraine at the time and the musicians wanted to show solidarity with the miners at a particularly tough time in their history. It was a heartfelt gesture of solidarity and a very symbolic one, as Lorraine’s coal mining industry was about to go into steep decline and all the mines ended up closing.
"The band got up at the crack of dawn to play to the miners, so it was the first concert organised in that year’s “Fête de la Musique”. That remains one of my most abiding memories of what the “Fête de la Musique” can represent on a symbolic level and the sort of human solidarity.
"We weren't into the idea of organising things. What we really wanted was for things to have a natural, spontaneous side. So we came up with the idea of involving as many groups as possible who could walk through the streets and play at the same time. Obviously, the first thing that came to mind was having brass bands and wind ensembles marching through the streets. We also got choirs into the idea of moving from one strategic point to another, so that people could stop and listen to a couple of Renaissance songs here or a Bach choral work or French chanson adaptation there. That’s where we got the idea of trying to keep performances short and sweet. Originally, the idea was to have musicians playing in the streets for half-an-hour to coincide with the broadcast of the evening news. So we started getting the necessary authorisation from local police stations and city hall. We had to get special permission from the bishoprics too, because the idea was to have all the church bells ringing to signal the start of the “Fête de la Musique”.
"Anyway things kicked off at 8 o’clock as planned – but in some places the “Fête” ended up going on until 3 o’clock in the morning! People were in the streets playing music and partying all night. It was amazing, our cultural centres down in the French provinces were faxing and phoning in their reports and they were completely overwhelmed by the turn-out. They couldn’t get over how many people had gone out into the streets and the way the idea had caught on so spontaneously. I was working as part of a team at the (Ministry of Culture) in the rue de Valois that night, pinning up reports that had come in from the regions on a little cork notice-board. That way the journalists who’d been invited to watch the concerts in the courtyard of the Palais Royal could read them and we could see how the “Fête” was going in other parts of the country.
"I remember pinning up this report from Strasbourg which read: “Strasbourg – 10,000 people in the streets to listen to such and such a musician!” And the “Fête” was a huge success in Toulouse too, right from the word go. Everyone was out in the streets, it was just incredible! But my most vivid memory of the whole evening has to be the conversation I had with one of our local music advisers in Franche-Comté who rang in to inform us that the entire population of Dole was out in the streets! Everyone was outside, either making music or listening to it. At midnight half the local population were still out in the streets partying! The “Fête” was an absolutely phenomenal success right from the word go and it took every single one of us by surprise!

Vox pops 2:
“It’s a time to celebrate all the different music in the world!”
“And that means there’s an extra special friendly atmosphere on the streets. It’s really good fun!” “I remember one particular “Fête de la Musique” where I got so into it, I danced in front of my grandmother just to make her happy!”
“That’s normal, you have to dance at the “Fête de la Musique”! Everyone’s happy and in a really good mood – and it’s easy to pick up girls! If you haven’t got a girlfriend, the Fête’s the perfect place to find one! There’s always so much going on at the “Fête de la Musique”. I remember once we went off to Bastille, me and my mates, and one of my mates hooked up with this girl. And the great thing is, they’re still together today. And they’ve got two young daughters!”
“Everything’s gone really well so far and I’m sure everyone’s going to be happy they came out to join the fun this year!”

Well, it’s certainly true that there’s always a lot going on at the “Fête de la Musique”. In fact, sometimes you get to see the most unexpected things. Take 1983, for example, when Yannis Xenakis caused such a big stir with Le chant des soleils. The work was specially created for that year’s “Fête de la Musique” and, thanks to a video link-up, French conductor Jean-Claude Casadesus simultaneously conducted choirs and harmonic orchestras in ten different towns in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. A few years later avant-garde composer Nicolas Frize caused an equally big stir at the Palais-Royal with his Concert de baisers (the ‘Kiss’ concert).

In 1990 Paris was swept by torrential rain but that didn’t stop the ‘Conservatoire national supérieur de musique’ from organising a giant procession involving hundreds of its pupils who marched across the city playing their instruments. Five years later the record-breaking exploits got even more impressive. In an attempt to gather the maximum number of instruments in one place, 700 musicians and 100 singers invaded the Place des Invalides and 21 pianos were lined up at Gobelins. One thing’s for sure, “La Fête de la Musique” is guaranteed to fire everyone’s musical imagination, as René Koering, composer and conductor with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra, explains:

René Koering :
"I was involved right from the beginning, from the very first year Maurice Fleuret came up with such an extraordinary idea. I was director of (the radio station) France Musique at the time. So I spent a long time scratching my head, trying to figure out how I could get radio involved in the festival which would be taking place on every street corner in every town and village all over France. And I must admit, at first I couldn’t quite see what role radio could play in it all. I was a bit hesitant for the first couple of years, but then I came up with the idea of integrating radio right at the heart of the “Fête de la Musique”. What happened was, I arranged for a orchestra to go and play in a studio and had them broadcast live on France Musique. We got the orchestra to play the accompaniment to a classical concerto for flutes and violins. And we let everyone know beforehand what time the concerto would be broadcast, persuading young - and not so young – musicians, amateurs as well as professionals, to go out into the streets with their transistors or perhaps something a bit more sophisticated like a hi-fi with speakers if they wanted.
"Radio France had already set up speakers at strategic points throughout the capital and we broadcast the orchestra live over the airwaves on France Musique. Obviously, there was something missing in their performance – they were just playing accompaniment and the idea was that the young amateur musicians and professionals on the streets would fill in the solo part! The idea was a lot of fun and even though the result wasn’t always of top quality, it was an extraordinary event to have pulled off! I got a lot of feedback from parents whose children were at music schools and conservatoires and friends who managed to record extracts here and there.
"There was obviously one major problem in that the musicians on the streets had to keep in time with a conductor they couldn’t see. So it was a bit difficult to tell when your instrument had to come in! It’s true, things were a bit shaky from that point of view. But that was more than compensated for by the general enthusiasm surrounding the project. Imagine how exciting it was for young flautists and violinists to be out there playing accompanied by the ‘Orchestre national de France’! You’ve got to admit, that’s not something that happens every day!

I’m pleased to say, the idea caught on elsewhere too. I organised a similar event a few years later and they did it in Germany too. I was really happy about that! And they organised something similar in Italy too, but using records which just give you a musical accompaniment to play along to rather than a live orchestra. The unfortunate thing is, you can hear the metronome ticking away over the top which is a bit annoying. We managed to avoid that by using a live orchestra, but it’s true that the metronome gives the “Fête de la Musique” a more professional edge I suppose. I’ve always enjoyed coming up with different ideas for the “Fête”, things which mean everyone can get involved. I’ve put on concerts in squares and other public places and organised special concerts fusing different styles such as jazz and techno with full symphony orchestras. As you can see, I’m a very enthusiastic supporter of the “Fête de la Musique” – it’s something I enjoy getting ready for each year!

Other musicians have taken things to even greater extremes on June 21st! French cellist Maurice Baquet, a close friend of Prévert and Doisneau, took a very imaginative approach to the “Fête de la Musique” one year, arranging to sail down the Seine on a makeshift raft with pianist Christopher Beckett.

Maurice Baquet
"We met up at the Port de l’Arsenal, the little marina on the Quai de la Rapée just down from Bastille. We had these two big canoes and wooden planking to stretch across the top of them to make the stage. We were getting that ready when a lorry turned up with Christopher Beckett’s grand piano. He’d worked out this special system of transporting it down to the marina and we had this enormous crane ready to lift it onto the raft. Anyway, things were all going according to plan when all of a sudden a guy from the Paris river police turned up with this buoy and a big ball of string and started attaching it to the piano. “What’s going on?” we asked him. And he replied, “Well, we’re pretty sure everything’s going to go off OK. But, just in case the piano falls in, this buoy will mark the exact spot where it went down.” As you can see, things got off to a very reassuring start!
"Anyway, we made the final adjustments to the raft, put our suits on and everything was just about ready. Then someone turned up and brought us these little life jackets – we didn’t know what to do with them, whether to wear them under or over our suits. I mean, we were in full evening dress with bow tie and tails and everything! There we were fussing about with our life jackets on the quay and suddenly this terrible storm broke right over our heads. Torrential rain began bucketing down and the piano was getting soaked, so we rushed to cover it up then ran off to get raincoats and tarpaulins. We managed to get everything under cover - the cello, the violin, the music stands and the piano. We stood there sheltering from the storm under tent covers with the rain hammering down over our heads, making a terrible noise. Then, all of a sudden, it stopped! The rainclouds cleared and the sun came out so off we went.
"We were paddled down the Seine by four canoeists from the French team who’d just won the European championships in Italy, so we were in safe hands. Everything went off perfectly and we floated down the Seine, followed by the river police on a motorised canoe. It was great, everything went according to plan and at the last moment a friend of ours even came on board with this big sound system. We hung on tight while they loaded it on and off we went, playing everything from Mozart to Franz Leh´r. But the thing that best summed up the day for me was Schubert’s Trout Quintet. It really was the ideal music to play floating down the Seine on our makeshift pontoon (Maurice Baquet starts humming a few bars from The Trout Quintet).
"It was an extraordinary experience. I wish I could do it every day, in fact! It was simply marvellous floating along with the sun shining and blue skies over Paris. We were still a bit wet from the storm, but everything worked out OK in the end because the sun ended up beating down as we sailed along on the canoes. Though I say it myself, it was a totally brilliant idea! When we reached the “Maison de la radio” there were friends of mine, who’d come up from Beaujolais, waiting for us with a few bottles of red wine. They had a couple of glasses of red wine ready to warm us up. And, quoting my dear friend, Francis Blanche I toasted everyone with my favourite bad pun: “A l’eau delà, je préfère le vin d’ici!” (I prefer the wine from here to the water over there!) And we raised our glasses and ended the day drinking Beaujolais on the Seine!

To celebrate the new millennium, the theme of the “Fête de la Musique 2000” was ‘music across the frontiers’. And one of the highlights of last year’s festival was the opening ceremony when the Ode to Joy was played simultaneously in Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Istanbul, Liverpool, Luxembourg, Naples and Rome! In Paris L’Orchestre National de Barbès – better known to ‘world’ music fans as the ONB – performed in a highly symbolic venue which left a lasting impression on Youcef Boukella and Kamel Tenfiche:

Youcef Boukella and Kamel Tenfiche (from the ONB) :
Kamel : “My most amazing memory of the “Fête de la Musique” was playing at the Assemblée nationale. I mean, can you imagine? We were performing right at the heart of things, where the founding values of the French Republic were created. For us, that was a form of true recognition. We got to play in a place where laws are voted, where the future of the nation is decided!”
Youcef : “To us, the French National Assembly represents real democracy. So it was a great honour to be invited to play there. And it was obviously very touching on a symbolic level too!”
Kamel : “All the ministers were there too. It was amazing to find yourself suddenly rubbing shoulders with people like that! It went beyond being a purely symbolic thing too. It really shook people up to see us playing there. And it was an unforgettable moment in our lives too. I remember I asked if I could go and have a look round the chamber. Normally, you’re only allowed to visit the chamber on Wednesday afternoons when National Assembly sessions are broadcast on TV. But they let me in to have a nose round the amphitheatre that night. And I can tell you, it’s really impressive. It gives you a real thrill!”
Youcef : “The other amazing thing was seeing the huge number of people who’d turned out to see us play. I don’t think there’s ever been so many black and Arab faces lined up in front of the National Assembly before or since! I often pass by the Assemblée and I’ve certainly never seen a crowd like that before! It was great for something like that to happen in Paris. It’s an amazing memory!”
Kamel : “All forms of political opinion are represented in the Assemblée Nationale, so somewhere down the line playing there meant we were playing to the whole of the French nation. And for us it was an amazing opportunity to be able to get up there and put a message across in our music, really use our music to show people who we are. I think it’s fair to say that that night we were the voice of France’s immigrant population. We got up there and spoke for people who are normally excluded from political and social debate!”

Sylvie Coma
Translation: Julie Street

Find out more about the Fête de la Musique on the official website.