Fete de la Musique in Berlin Special

Berlin - On June 21, Berlin celebrated the longest day of the year and the official beginning of summer with the city-wide music festival Fete de la Musique.

The idea of a day dedicated to the music was first broached in 1976 by American musician Joel Cohen, then employed by the national French radio station France Musique. Cohen proposed an all-night music celebration at the moment of the summer solstice. The idea was taken up by French Music and Dance director Maurice Fleuret for Minister of Culture Jack Lang in 1981 and first took place in 1982. Since then, many cities around the world organize the event on June 21, every years. With performances on more than 80 open-air stages, the street festival offered every kind of music, from reggae, and jazz, to hip hop, electronic music and klezmer. The free concerts started in the early afternoon and will last long into the summer night. "This year few people attended the performances," complained one of the organizers of the stage in Helmotzplatz, Prenzlauer Berg. The bad weather and the concomitance with the FIFA world cup in South Africa didn't help the organization.