'Make Music Day' Returning To Hartford On June 21

HARTFORD, CT — Make Music Day, an annual music festival held on the summer solstice, is back for its 40th anniversary this year — in Hartford and worldwide.

The free festival is open to everyone who wants to watch or take part. Musicians of all types, ages and skill levels will fill streets, parks, plazas, porches, rooftops, gardens and other public spaces in over 100 United States cities.

Hartford has a lineup of acts prepared, including:

• Matt Dwonszyk, who will lead a large group of double bass players called "Basses Loaded," assembled at the Old State House in Downtown Hartford. The performance will pay homage to Charles Mingus for his centennial year.
• A Sousapalooza, which will bring together hundreds of brass, wind and percussion musicians to play the music of John Philip Sousa.

Make Music Day celebrations will also take place in Danbury, Fairfield, Hebron, Middletown, New Haven, Norwalk, Ridgefield, Stamford, Stratford and Waterbury.

In a news release, officials said the event will be staged in "the entire state" of Connecticut, though they didn't specify how.

The event was launched in France in 1982 as the "Fête de la Musique," and since then it has been celebrated by hundreds of millions of people in more than 1,000 cities across 120 countries, officials said.

It debuted in the United States in 2007 with an event in New York, and the country's "flagship" Make Music Day is still hosted in New York City each year.