Make Music Day 2026 to Take Place Across 150-Plus Cities

Make Music Day is set to return on June 21 with more than 5,000 concerts, music lessons and jam sessions nationwide. In 2025, Make Music Day included 5,471 free public concerts in the U.S., at over 1,500 locations. This year, 42 new communities will join the party, reimagining their cities and towns as stages where every kind of musician fills streets, parks, plazas, porches, rooftops, gardens and other public spaces to celebrate, create, and share their music.

First launched in France in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique, Make Music Day has become a global celebration in more than 2,000 cities worldwide annually.

One new global Make Music Day initiative, Workplace Harmony, shines a light on the musical creativity hidden behind the nearest cubicle. Bands and choirs made up of workplace colleagues from Bosch, Chubb, Dentsu Publishing, Ford, Linklaters, MediaMarkt, Sompo and other global companies will perform for Make Music Day in Los Angeles, London, Istanbul and more. Videos of their performances will be shared with a panel of music industry judges, who will give feedback and bestow prizes, including the inaugural Workplace Harmony Cup.

Conduct Us, another new initiative launched in partnership with comedic performance art group Improv Everywhere, brings large ensembles into public spaces. Initially, the musicians sit quietly behind a sign that says “Conduct Us.” As soon as a member of the public steps up to the podium and picks up the baton, the musicians follow their new conductor and start playing. In Cedar Rapids IA, the public will lead the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band during their 7:30pm concert at Bever Park, while in Salem OR, the public will conduct members of the Salem Orchestra at an event in memory of Make Music Salem co-founder Mark Green.

In honor of America’s 250th birthday, Make Music Day’s longstanding Sousapalooza will be organized this year from coast to coast, inviting large groups of brass and wind musicians to come together and play the quintessentially American music of The March King, John Philip Sousa. The Levitt Family Foundation is supporting Sousapalooza at Levitt venues and concert sites across the country, including events in Dyersburg Tennessee, Shenandoah Junction West Virginia, and more to be announced.

makemusicday.org