Fête de la Musique
Every year on 21 June, the summer solstice, Belgium joins France and dozens of other countries in celebrating the Fête de la Musique — a free citywide music festival where thousands of musicians perform on streets, squares, in parks and public spaces. In Brussels, Liège, Ghent and other Belgian cities, the Fête de la Musique has become one of the most beloved annual events.
✅ Free admission — the Fête de la Musique is completely free. All concerts on streets and squares are open to everyone on 21 June.
Free entry — all concerts are completely free and openly accessible.
Born in France, embraced by the world
The Fête de la Musique was created in 1982 by the French Ministry of Culture as a way to democratise music and make it accessible to everyone. On the longest day of the year, music is free and open to all. Every musician, amateur or professional, can perform in public spaces.
What to expect
On 21 June, streets fill with music on every corner — from classical quartets to jazz ensembles, rock bands, DJs, folk and everything in between. There is no main stage, no headliner, no hierarchy. No tickets, no wristbands, no VIP zones. Music belongs to everyone.
Every musician, amateur or professional, is allowed to perform in public space — without a permit, without a stage that needs booking, without a gatekeeper deciding who gets to play and who doesn’t.
That premise quickly spread to other countries, and Belgium embraced it enthusiastically. What began as a French initiative is now an annual tradition in dozens of Belgian cities, where the day is just as firmly on the calendar as in the country where it started.
For many amateur musicians, 21 June is also the one evening of the year they actually play for an audience — no rehearsal room, just a real street full of people who happen to walk by and stay to listen.
No structure, on purpose
What makes Fête de la Musique so special is precisely that absence of structure. Where most festivals have a line-up, a schedule and a main stage, this event is a collection of loose, spontaneous performances that somehow still add up to a whole. Walk down one street and you’ll hear a string quartet, turn the corner and you’re in the middle of a DJ set, and a few hundred metres further a local cover band plays for a handful of neighbours on the pavement.
No one needs to travel anywhere to experience it: the nearest street is often enough.
Nobody knows exactly where the best performances will happen: alongside the announced stages, spontaneous street musicians pop up across the city, from young bands to seasoned street performers finding a whole new audience for one evening. Anyone who’d rather not follow a fixed programme is best off simply going for a walk and heading toward whichever music pulls hardest — that’s exactly the point of the evening.
For anyone who prefers experiencing music spontaneously and without fuss, Fête de la Musique is one of the few evenings a year when an entire city becomes a stage all at once, from the biggest squares to the quietest residential streets, without anyone having to pay for any of it.
Practical info
- • Date: 21 June, every year
- • Entry: completely free
- • Locations: Brussels, Liège, Ghent and other cities throughout Belgium and France