Ann Arbor community members gathered across the city Saturday to celebrate Make Music Day, a festival where musicians of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to perform, connect and share their love of music. After originating in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique in France, Make Music Day is now held annually on the summer solstice, June 21, in more than 1,000 cities and 120 countries. Make Music Ann Arbor was organized by the Ann Arbor District Library and featured 60 performances and activities spread throughout the city.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Rich Retyi, AADL communications and marketing manager, said the library first attempted to bring the festival to Ann Arbor three years ago but struggled to gain traction with the event on a Thursday. Retyi said this year’s event attracted more performers due to additional planning and a weekend date.
“For 2025 we realized, okay, it falls on a Saturday,” Retyi said. “Let’s try and make this as big as possible. So what we did was really, truly, tried to reach out to the city and see if anybody wanted to host a concert or host a band, musician, anything at their home, or open it up again to businesses or any sort of partners, and we got a pretty great response from hosts and from bands who were looking to to play.”
During the event, the AADL downtown branch hosted several activities such as a Folk Song Jam Along and a Musical Petting Zoo, where attendees sampled a collection of instruments such as synthesizers, keyboards and guitars. The library also featured a performance from The Blue Birds and The Friends, a group of children who sang Japanese children’s songs.
