Music lovers unite in Paris

Postcard: Arts from around the globe

In Paris the longest day in the year, 21 June, is also the loudest. If, of course, it is not the wettest. The French capital offers its streets and squares to musicians of all sorts for La Fête de la Musique for as long as the crowd has the heart to sing and the strength to dance.

In Paris the longest day in the year, 21 June, is also the loudest. If, of course, it is not the wettest. The French capital offers its streets and squares to musicians of all sorts for La Fête de la Musique for as long as the crowd has the heart to sing and the strength to dance.

You realise how many young people live in this old European capital. They have just received the results of their final exams and, having the whole summer to spare that day, they take over the streets before returning them to the tourists.

Jack Lang, the Minister of Education and the former Minister of Culture, didn't launch this fiesta in 1982 because he wanted to reward the teenagers at the end of the school year. His idea was to renew the old peasant tradition of welcoming summer by singing and jumping over a bonfire and by transforming it into an unlimited urban fiesta. He hoped to see the Parisian intelligentsia leave their left bank cafés to enjoy the music on the streets. It's not that easy. At the carrefour de la Croix-Rouge, near Saint Germain, a dozen teenagers shake the walls of an old café with their interpretation of Oasis. These kids, from the nearby school, have borrowed the instruments and the amplifiers from their music club. "My brother has a friend at the bar, that's why we plug in here," says Antoine, the singer. And, of course, there's not a single adult listening. Most of them pass by, looking with surprise as the teenagers jump and shout, and walk down the street to the Place Saint-Sulpice.

Here, on the steps of the 18th-century church, the parishioners have organised a concert of classical music. Neatly dressed old ladies sitting in their wooden deckchairs, applaud their grandchildren dressed in sky-blue and pink, playing a Mozart piece absolutely out of tune. The children have to compete with a rock-music concert just a hundred metres from the church.

Obviously, many groups of listeners don't mix. Jack Lang's idea had been to bring the music out of the concert halls onto the streets and let lovers of classic and modern discover each other. Initially, in those early days of Mitterrand's socialist presidency, there also was the hope of forging social links between the classes. However, concert halls like the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, right in the middle of the posh Parisian avenue Montaigne, still attract largely the same public that go shopping just in front - in the stores that sell Gucci and Versace products.

According to sociological research in the late Eighties, cultural practices and tastes in France still corresponded with social status - Mahler and Brahms for the upper class, pop and rock for all the rest. Nevertheless, La Fête de la Musique has managed to establish some links. For instance, it has become a tradition for pop stars to give concerts on the square of the Necker Hospital. Necker is the city's largest hospital for young children and has the capacity for up to 800 patients. Of course, not all of the patients were able to come down to see Patricia Kass and Indochine, the most famous pop attractions. Those children who had to stay in bed watched the concert on television in their rooms.

Last Wednesday there were over 1,000 concerts in Paris and over 10,000 throughout France. The concept of La Fête de la Musique has also been taken up abroad in 15 European countries, but not yet in Britain - though this year, for the first time, the French hip-hop group K Special crossed the Channel to celebrate the longest day with the Asian community of Liverpool.

Further information can be found at: www.fetedelamusique.culture.fr