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It all started 41 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 each city: street corners, parks, rooftops, gardens, and store fronts.
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”.)
Four decades later, the holiday has spread throughout the world and is now celebrated in more than 1,000 cities in 120 different countries, which includes Beaumont, Texas.
The Downtown Beaumont Cultural Arts District (DBCAD) will host the third annual “Make Music Beaumont” on Friday, June 23, at 7 p.m. inside the Jefferson Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com or at the door (345 Fannin St.).
The Broadway edition will include performances of excerpts of “The Lion King,” “The SpongeBob Musical,” “Sister Act” and “The Masked Singer” from the Jonathon Williams School of Performing Arts and Beaumont Community Players.
“Make Music Beaumont” will get started Wednesday, June 21, with a livestream of prerecorded performances from musicians from Southeast Texas on the Downtown Beaumont Cultural Arts District Facebook page.
The mission of the DBCAD is to promote the cultural and economic development of historic Downtown Beaumont by serving as a unified and structural approach to the organization of art related events in the district, by providing aid to artists both local and visiting, and by securing funding for artists, art events, and conservation efforts.