Make Music Hawaiʻi

Completely different from typical music events, Make Music Hawaiʻi creates community events that are open to everyone who wants to take part. Every kind of musician — young and old, amateur and professional, of every musical persuasion — will pour onto Hawaiʻi’s streets, parks, plazas, and porches to share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers. All of it is free and open to the public.

Make Music Hawaiʻi will have events year-round in Hawaiʻi and Statewide. Make Music Hawaii will also have 2 major dates each year that celebrate music. Hawaiʻi’s next Make Music Day celebration will be June 21, 2021.

Last year, over 1,000 cities around the world threw citywide music celebrations.

It all started 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 storefronts.

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 11% of the country (7 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 1,000 cities in 120 different countries. And now Make Music has come to Hawaii!