Downtown Palo Alto was packed Sunday as hundreds of residents enjoyed over 50 performances at Palo Alto World Music Day. Although this was the third  year for the event, the closing of University Ave to traffic changed the entire atmosphere of the festival compared to previous years.  Musicians performed on the sidewalk while wide-eyed audiences watched from the street.  

The various performers differed considerably—from amateur musicians to professionals, from young stars to old. While many of the performances were solo artists, others groups had over 20 members. An eclectic group of music genres were represented as well, such as acoustic, blues, jazz, choral, classical, Celtic, Greek, Chinese and other world music.

The event consisted of three different sessions, where about fifteen performers performed along University avenue for 90 minutes. There was a level of surprise, as every fifteen feet or so there would be a completely different performer.  

Palo Alto World Music Day is the brain child of Palo Alto resident Calude Ezran, who witnessed the World Music Day in London. The event is based on the French  festival Fete De La Musique, where amateur and professional musicians preform in the street.

“The Fete De La Musique is really cool, where everyone plays in the streets, in the metro—everywhere around France. Anyone can go and listen to a bunch of free concerts. It has spread to all of Europe and other U.S cities as well,” Camille Ezran, Claude's daughter, said. “So my dad had the idea of starting it in Palo Alto.”

Claude, who organized the first few festivals almost entirely by himself, this year joined forces with the Palo Alto Recreation Foundation.  Claude, along with a committee of eight people, has spent months booking talent, finding volunteers and musicians for for the day, and working on publicity for the event.

“It’s just fantastic,” Sid Espinosa, the Palo Alto mayor said. “Here’s a member of the community who has a full time job and a family but he just believes that this is something we should do. For most people just the idea of taking that on that would be overwhelming—working with the city, working with the police, working with 50 musical acts. But he just really thought it would make a difference to help the city come together and he has been working for months to pull this off.”  

Espinosa noted that closing University Ave greatly improved the atmosphere of the festival and encouraged many more attendees than in previous years.

“Last year, a lot of the feedback I got was that you should really close the street.” Espinosa said. “There was a lot of debate within the city because anytime you close the street it’s expensive. We need to think through any time we are going to do it and we have spent many months of planning to do this tonight.” 

Claude noted that the closing of University attracted more attendees than usual, estimating that between 15,000 to 20,000 people attended at least part of the event at some time.

Last year on April 4th the City Council voted to make World Music Day an annual Father's Day festival.

“World Music Day is a celebration of music, musicians and a community building event,” Claude said. “As a member of Palo Alto’s Human Relations Commission, I am particularly sensitive to that last part, the community building aspect.”