About – Make Music Australia

About Make Music Day Australia

Held annually on 21 June, Make Music Day is part of the international Fête de la Musique, taking place in a thousand cities and places across 120 countries. The daylong, musical free-for-all, celebrates music in all its forms, encouraging people to band together and play in free public concerts in many different locations and online. Make Music Day is presented in Australia by the Australian Music Association and the NAMM Foundation.

Performances can take place anywhere, from a major concert hall to a home studio. All manner of buildings and spaces have been used for Make Music Day from established music venues, churches, community centres, libraries, galleries, shopping centres, bars and outdoor spaces such as parks and town squares. By establishing one specific day each year, 21 June, to celebrate music, Make Music Day encourages both amateur and professional music making, and empowers individuals to seek out ways to celebrate music in their community.

To help make the most of your participation, we offer a number of resources on this site.

Everyone is invited to join in and make music! Create a local Make Music Day chapter in your area or Create Your Own Stage | Register your event and be part of a global program

We invite you to create your own stage or join one of the Make Music Day Australia initiatives that will take place either face-to-face or online on June 21.

If you have any questions, see the FAQ section or contact us.

We are a member of the global Make Music Alliance. Each year we promote a number of initiatives providing opportunities for our participants to collaborate or to be part of the broader Make Music Day celebration. These collaboration opportunities come from our partner Make Music Day events around the world.

International collaborations include:

• My Song is your Song
Make Music Day invites artists around the world to the second annual global song swap! Musicians from around the world with matched to learn a song by another artist, and hear theirs covered in return. Songwriters and composers of all styles and walks of life were invited to participate with several Australian composers working with colleagues overseas

• Global Livestream
As a “Main Stage” for Make Music Day, the Make Music Alliance organised an all-day video stream on June 21 showcasing the rich diversity of being made around the world.

• Make Music Make Friends
Through this virtual exchange, Make Music, Make Friends will expose children to different regions and cultures, while providing an authentic audience for their own performance. Up to ten classes from each country will create a musical greeting video, share it with schools from different countries, and have their students watch these musical messages on June 21.

Sign up to our database and get the latest news on Make Music Day

If you manage a space or run a venue that would host some free live music on June 21st let your community know of the kind of musicians you would welcome on Make Music Day. Register your event and become part of the Program.

About | Partners | History

Make Music Day has grown as a global celebration of music making across more that 1000 cities around the world.

It all started 40 years ago in France. In 1982, Jack Lang and his staff at the Ministry of Culture dreamed up an idea for a new kind of musical holiday. They imagined a day where FREE music would be everywhere, all around the city: street corners, parks, rooftops, gardens, and store fronts. 2022 is Fete de la Musique’s 40th Anniversary!

And, unlike a typical music festival, anyone and everyone would be invited to join and play music, or host performances.

The event would take place on the summer solstice, June 21, and would be called Fête De La Musique. (In French, the name means both “festival of music” and “make music”.)

Amazingly enough, this dream has come true. The Fête has turned into a true national holiday: Paris shuts down on the summer solstice and musicians take over. Almost 8% of the country (5 million people) have played an instrument or sung in public for the Fête de la Musique, and 64% of the country (43 million people) comes out each year to listen.

Three decades later, the holiday has spread throughout the world and is now celebrated in more than 800 cities in 120 different countries.

Make Music Day Australia began in 2018 with the funding and resources of the Australian Music Association (AMA), via its partner the NAMM Foundation and the Make Music Alliance. We also welcome our significant local partners in Create NSW, APRA AMCOS and The Live Music Office, Community Music Victoria.

We are now working to fill the Make Music Day Australia program with exciting events and build greater awareness of the initiative to people everywhere. Each year we aim to develop an events program created by a community of music makers all over Australia. We also host social media to build community awareness of the program and the opportunities provided for making music.