The Arts Council for Long Beach strives to improve the quality of life for residents and visitors of the City of Long Beach through the cultivation of the arts. Arts and culture uplift communities and have the power to bring the city together. One example of this is Make Music Long Beach, a free city-wide celebration which is part of a worldwide event that takes place annually on June 21st, the summer solstice. In Long Beach, we celebrate music as a uniting force and a common language in our very diverse city. Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music is open to anyone and takes place in every district in our city. Thousands of amateur musicians play in public spaces, often for their first time. Professional musicians perform for new audiences, who come out from under their headphones to hear unfamiliar groups risk-free. And everyone is invited to sing along and enjoy the first day of summer.
The festival started 35 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, live music would be everywhere. 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!”)
In 2016 Long Beach local, Arnetta “Miz” Lowe envisioned bringing the event to Long Beach and founded Make Music Long Beach as a grassroots effort. With support from the City of Long Beach, the Long Beach Music Council and Arts Council for Long Beach joined in spearheading a large-scale, city-wide celebration.
The full schedule of events can be found at makemusiclongbeach.org.