During the early weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak and the lockdown that it brought along with it, we music fans also had to sit and receive the disappointing news as festival after festival was cancelled.
Every festival? No, there was one festival that refused to give in…
The Fete de la Musique team said that they were on the fence for a week or two but at some point it was decided: somehow, someway, the show would go on.
How to put on what has in Berlin, classically, become a huge celebration not just of music but of togetherness, diversity, love and hope – and most definitely against the opposite of all those things: against polarisation, against the erecting of fences and barriers in the real world and in our minds; against racism, against nationalism and small-mindedness. For if music is the language of love, etcetera.
The Fete, then, has gone – largely – online.
Hosting over a hundred livestreams on the fetedelamusique.de website, while dozens more will be going on and linked to, with the social media channels of the FETEBerlin team acting as a live ticker, a way of moderating the event in some way…so it’s come down to this: We’re going to have a party, somehow, somewhere, someway, and no sneaky little no-fun virus is going to stop us.
Also!
German-now-global star of dance-music-lite, Alle Farben, will be performing a live set in the evening, beamed from the gondola of the Alexanderplatz Fernsehturm itself…
Also!
All of Europe will sing along at 5pm to the Ode to Joy, altogether in some ways if not others…
Also!
The Velotaxis – bicycle taxis or rickshaws – that you see on the streets of Berlin will be carrying singer-songwriters in the backs of them, who will then be serenading pedestrians and passers-by.
Also!
Well…I could go on. There’s a ton of stuff going on this Sunday 21st June, not just in Berlin but across the globe, in celebration of:
