Fête de la Musique

There could not have been a better time to be in France. Every year on the day of Summer Solstice, the entire country of France celebrates Fête de la Musique, basically the biggest free musical party ever. The festivities don’t start until around 6 PM and lasts until the next morning. It’s actually a three day long celebration, but naturally the first night is the night to celebrate and most of the concerts are free (the ones outside anyway). Throughout the afternoon it would be typical Paris weather: sunshine, rain, thunderstorm, sunshine, hail, sunshine. By the time it was time to leave it stayed sunny, thank goodness!
The whole set up is on every couple of blocks there are bands in front of a café, garden, on the edge of a corner, everywhere. My desired neighborhood of Paris is Saint-Germain-des-Prés so a couple of us headed there.
We get off the métro and just start walking to see what this crazy celebration had to offer on the longest. We first encountered this band right in front of a café and they seemed pretty cool, nothing too exciting. Obviously the night hadn’t even started yet, so it was time to move on. We continued walking see a couple of other bands. I didn’t see any band of importance that I know of, so I’m only assuming they’re all local bands.

At one point we turn to find a huge crowd in a small street. On this particular street the vibe totally changed from mostly rock bands to some Mexican music. It was so crowded and there were people salsa dancing all over. How crazy it was to take one simple right turn and end up listening to a whole different genre of music really intrigued me. But the exploring was not yet done!

I had no idea how prevalent American music was in other countries until this night. I probably heard “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes several times. There might not be anything funnier than listening to the French sing American songs with their accents. Especially this band...

These guys were doing mostly covers of The White Stripes and 80s music. After about the third time of listening to the same song by a different band, they decided to change it up a little and play some Joan Jett and AC/DC. We were feeling a little quench of thirst so we ran into the Monoprix across the street to buy something and upon our return they’ve moved on to The Clash. We decided that we had spent quite a bit of time listening to these guys, so we began to walk a bit more as it started to get a little darker.

We ended up walking all the way to the Musée du Louvre which didn’t have much music going on so more walking we did! The next thing I know, we see the Eiffel Tower all light up. It could not have been more perfect: faint music coming down from the Eiffel Tower, and the best view in the world. I could easily get used to looking at the Eiffel Tower everyday. After spending some time here taking it all in, we wanted to watch some more bands, naturally.

Unfortunately it was getting to be very late and there weren’t any bands on the streets anymore, so we decided to get on the métro and find somewhere else to go within Paris. But it was closed. So was the next one. And then the one after that...closed. Finally, we find an open one with people everywhere. People screaming in French, K-9 German Shepherds with the French police, and people running to the métro. We were kind of lost in a haze so we decided it wasn’t very safe and to head home. We’re waiting for the train to arrive and all of a sudden I feel like my eyes are burning and I’m coughing. We look around and everyone else in the station is acting the same way. We assumed it must have been tear gas and we were lucky enough to have only gotten there after they used it. A long night it was, it was time to head home.

 

This experience can barely be put into words, let alone within the space that a blog can allow. This won’t be the last time I get to experience Fête de la Musique. I’ll never forget this night with good music and good company, but it certainly won’t be the last!