National Music Day

In France, every year, there's a national music day where semi-professional artists play for free all over the country

In France, every year, there’s a national music day where semi-professional artists, unknown artists most of the time, organize themselves with the city in order to play music all over the city, for free.

In Marseille, this occurs in two neighborhoods: Le Vieux Port and Le Cours Julien. You can jump from bar to bar, where DJs and bands are playing outside to crowds, there’s a food court with specialities from all nationalities represented. The air smells like Harissa mixed with sweat.

If you go to La Plaine in the Cours Julien, you’ll see a big stage where unknown bands are given the opportunity of a lifetime, to get discovered by an audience of thousands who came to listen to good music.

This is for me the best day of the year, I spend it discovering new musical styles, new collectives, tasting wonderful food for cheap, and getting drunk at illegal alcohol stalls for almost nothing. The pastis is at 2 euros, that’s all I need to know.

But this year I didn’t spend it at the vieux port where they’re playing commercial music popular from the 2000s with shitty transitions for a public of average randoms, nor did I spend it at the cours julien where the music is much more experimental and unique, I spent it at the beach, where one of my favorite collective was holding an illegal stage, where you could watch the sunset at the beach and listen to insane hard techno at the same time.

But before that, we did a before at some DJ’s place, someone who was playing later tonight, where the DJ was playing to us and the entire street his set, and we were dancing through the windows to the crowd. That was a lot of fun.

Music day is unique because you never know what could happen. You never know which stage is going to be your favorite, which one is going to be your favorite act. It’s a surprise every year.

This year’s favorite act was a duo: a DJ and a rapper, and it went amazingly. The guy sang like Orelsan but much more aggressively, giving us a full performance from under his tent, and the DJ handled amazing transitions. The beats were fast and danceable, the rapper singing about politics, sending me into a frenzy.

National Music Day is for everyone. In a crowd of hard techno music, we could find elderly couples, kids, and homeless people; everyone participates, everyone celebrates. It’s the one day a year when there is no divide between us, because we all love some good live music, and every year the city delivers.

And boy, if there isn’t a divide every other day. People are more extreme than ever, and yet on this one day, we come to celebrate and dance together.

There is no day like National Music Day, no day that unites the people like that, and for some reason, it’s a French tradition that isn’t common worldwide, and it’s beautiful.

Imagine a street of five bars but you have 10 streets like this one, each bar has its band or DJ, and you can dance in front of it for free, get a drink at an illegal stall, get some Ethiopian homemade food from another illegal stall, giving back to the community however you can (they often don’t price their items, you give whatever you want), and you spend your afternoon and night dancing with your friends.

I’m not very proud of being French, for obvious reasons, and also because they’re lousy tourists with no manners, but on this day, it feels good to be French. Because we’re all respectful, this year it happened during a heatwave, so some of us walked around with bottles of water for people, checked those who had taken drugs, and made sure everyone was having fun while being safe. Even through the political upheaval we’re going through, we still care for one another, and I find that beautiful.

From Marseille with Love,

*vapes away*