June 21st 2014 between the hours of 10 am and 10pm you can see free music all over the 5 boroughs. To be more clear, you can see over 1,000 music events in 49 parks all over the city and everyone’s playing in them.
Make Music New York (MMNY) is a non-profit organization that celebrates music with 761 other cities on the same day. This year will be its 8th annual. It’s based off of France’s national music holiday “Fete dela Musique” which was created in 1982. It was first seen in New York in 1989 and done regularly since 2007.
The first MMNY had everything from a kazoo group outside of Morngingside Heights Church to Tuvan throat singers outside the Rubin Museum of Art to and NYPD jazz group. The first year there were 560 shows across the city. It grew exponentially over the next 8 years with Latin jazz bands, symphonies, dozens of guitar players, Acapella groups, a 24 hour electronic piece under the Manahattan Bridge . . . the list goes on.
Since it’s start, MMNY has made happen 6,514 performances all over the city.
This year it will be MMNY’s 8th annual concert. The organization takes care of the permitting for the musicians; they just need to sign up by April 29th and bring friends. Play a solo guitar set in Midtown, give harmonic lessons in Central Park, try out a jazz quartet in the Bronx, or showcase your latest basement rock band in Brooklyn. What ever the sound is, musicians have the opportunity to play a concert in New York City bring in the new summer and celebrate music.
