This Europe: Paris throws party to prove Mozart wrong

Mozart once famously said the French knew and cared nothing about music. (He actually put it slightly more rudely than that).

If he had been able to visit Paris yesterday, he might have changed his tune. There were free open-air musical shows across the city – from classical to rock, from traditional French songs to reggae – as part of France's 20th annual music festival.

The Fête de la Musique is one of the most popular, lasting creations of the Socialist government of the early 1980s. It was devised by the culture minister, Jack Lang, as a way of generating interest in music and breaking down social barriers.

The idea has already spread to a number of other European countries and the current French government, although proudly non-Socialist, would like the festival to become an EU-wide event.

Stars of yesterday's free shows – 400 in Paris alone, and many more across the country – included the American rock guitarist Lenny Kravitz in the Place de la République and Tino Valentino, a celebrated street performer of old French classics, who sang outside the town hall.

Other performers included the French national orchestra, the national jazz orchestra, the reggae star Nuttea and 100 accordionists in the Jardin du Luxembourg – plenty to disprove Mozart's theory on music and the French.