Make Music Salem

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Salem, OR
Make Music Salem

Join us for a day of music, fun, and community! Make Music Day Salem is a call to participation: Music by the People, For the People.

Celebrate music with Make Music Salem, Oregon's largest free music festival! 🎶 Held annually on June 21st, we feature 150+ performers, 50 venues, and 250+ performances from 10 am to 10 pm. Make Music Day Salem is an event for people who love music and the joyous sense of community that music can foster. It will be held at numerous locations in Salem every June 21 (the summer solstice), with the fi

rst event taking place on June 21, 2016. It is an invitation to all musicians, amateur as well as professional, to sign up to play at one of the available venues and, after practicing up for the big event, to perform on June 21. And it is an invitation to music-lovers to show up at the venues and enjoy the musical offerings. Make Music Day Salem is a celebration of music of all genres played by and enjoyed by people of all stripes. We plan to have music from Alternative to Bluegrass to Classical to Zydeco. And we hope to have a large turnout from the whole community, celebrating together our shared love of live music. We will be joining over 725 cities around the world to celebrate Make Music Day – so help us make this day unforgettable as we kick off summer with music for all to enjoy! Make Music Day Salem is an outgrowth of the Fete de la Musique, which originated in France in 1982. The event began as a call to musicians in Paris to get out in the streets on June 21 and play their music. It has since spread and has a large footprint, particularly in Europe and parts of Africa, but also in a handful of cities getting started in the U.S. We think this is a great way to showcase our city and the many talented and amazing people that make Salem special.

03/22/2026

⌨️📌 Registration is open? Are you kidding me? We would never kid you about that! Performers and host venues - registration is now open! Go to our website link in the bio to sign-up. Make Music Day Salem is only three months away! 🎶☀️ Sunday, June 21st 🎶

03/21/2026

🎤 It’s K A R A O K E time at the Hall! That’s right, our next hosted Make Music Salem Countdown Event is karaoke at on Friday, March 27th! Hosted by KJ RoQwest , the song tunes will start at 9pm and go all night (or until we get kicked out)! Start putting your song request list together! Bring friends (or make new ones), grab some food from the Hall and beverages from in the back of the Hall and join in! See you (and hear you) on the 27th! 🎶

02/27/2026

🎶 The Bro Diddley band will be playing some pop, rock & blues for the next Make Music Salem Countdown Show! Meet us at this Saturday, February 28th, starting at 8pm! Great food, great beverages & great music, & supporting Make Music Salem all at the same time! 🙌🏻 Free (although we appreciate any donations to Make Music Salem) & minors welcome until 10pm! 🎶

We’re counting down to Make Music Day…Sunday, June 21st (always on the first full day of summer)! 🗓️

01/19/2026

🎶 The first Make Music Salem Countdown (to June 21st) Event is coming up! Join us on Saturday, January 24th, 7:30pm, for some awesome tunes by Dan Miles and Rebecca McDade! They’ll be performing in the theater upstairs at f/stop Fitzgerald’s Public House! 21+ and free (although donations are appreciated)! 🪐

12/21/2025

It’s December 21st, the Winter Solstice and Yule Make Music Day! Join us for bell ringing, Irish dancing, holiday rock n’ roll, trivia, and Charlie Brown Christmas trio! ❄️🎄🎶

12/18/2025

No matter rain, snow, sleet, or sun, we will be celebrating the Winter Solstice with all the Yule Make Music Salem musical events! Join us Sunday, December 21st, starting at 2pm and closing out the evening around 9pm! Music, dancing, bells, parade, trivia…we got it all! ❄️❄️❄️

12/17/2025

❄️We have some great things planned to celebrate the Winter Solstice on Sunday, December 21st! Join us at Yule Make Music Salem’s music events for the entire family throughout downtown with Irish dancing and music, the family bell parade, followed by live music, and trivia! Join us at one or all events!❄️

YULE MAKE MUSIC SCHEDULE

~Jigs + Joy~
2-3pm at Venti’s (325 Court St. NE)
Ceili of the Valley dancers, followed by Salem TradSessions with live Irish traditional music
All ages and audience participation welcome

~Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Walk~
3:30-4:30pm
Start at Ritter’s (102 Liberty St. NE), and we’ll stroll through downtown stopping to play holiday song with our bells.

End at Noble Wave (189 Liberty St. NE) approximately 4:30pm to enjoy hot chocolate and beignets for parade participants.
All ages and audience participation welcome

~Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Cheers~
Live Music + Trivia
Wear your festive sweater or santa hat and enjoy some food, beverages, music & trivia!

5-7pm at Precious Pizza (347 Court St. NE)
Music by The Hypnatwists , followed by the RiverCity Royals
All ages

6-8pm at Venti’s Beer Vault downstairs (325 Court St. NE)
Trivia hosted by Ronan Baker + music by Daylight Bedtime performing some musical trivia questions
21+

7-9pm at Noble Wave (189 Liberty St. NE)
Music by the Charlie Brown Christmas Trio .music , followed by Ashley Lute
All ages

It’s going to be a great afternoon and evening of music and fun celebrating Yule Make Music! 🎶💙
Artwork design:

12/03/2025

It’s ! Your support and contribution to Make Music Day Salem makes a difference! Giving Tuesday (or any day) is the chance to give back to communities and causes, including Make Music Salem! Your financial donation of any amount directly supports this music event that is free to everyone to attend! We are keeping the music going for Mark Green, the person responsible for bringing Make Music Day to Salem, and sadly passed away recently after a short illness.🧡

Make Music Salem is a fiscally-sponsored non-profit through the Salem Foundation, and you can honor Mark’s legacy with a donation in his name to Make Music Salem through the Salem Foundation (link in bio).🧡

The volunteer-only committee looks forward to bringing you more music each year for the annual ☀️ Summer Make Music Day celebration on June 21st (Summer Solstice) and the ❄️ Winter Yule Make Music celebration on December 21st (Winter Solstice). Your generous donation is much appreciated!.☀️❄️🎶🤍

08/09/2025

We are saddened to share that the heart of Make Music Salem, Mark Green, passed away the evening of August 5, 2025, from Wild-Type Amyloidosis 💔 Mark always wanted to make his community a better place for everyone and he was excited to be able to bring the international music celebration, to Salem, with the first Salem music event taking place on June 21, 2016 (always on the first day of summer). Since then, Make Music Salem has grown into a large-scale, free event featuring over 275 performances across more than 60 venues, and just celebrated its 10th Year of hosting. The event spans every genre and style, providing a platform for musicians of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to share their talents.

Mark was proud that he and the Make Music Salem volunteer committee received the ’Spirit Award’ from the City of Salem in 2024, and was recognized by the national Make Music Alliance as the ‘Best Functioning Smaller-to-Medium Sized City’ hosting Make Music Day events. He was also a member of the Make Music Alliance Board.

Information about a Celebration of Life will be posted soon. In addition, we will be keeping the music going and honoring Mark at the next Make Music Salem event on Sunday, June 21, 2026! 🎶🧡

06/24/2025

☔️ Rain did not dampen our 10th anniversary music party! 🎶 Thanks to everyone for showing up and supporting Make Music Salem for another great event! Big shoutout to the 200+ performers and 60+ host venues for being flexible and making it work! Thank you to our donors, sponsors, and volunteers for making this year happen! 🙌🏻🧡

Address

Salem, OR
97301, 97302, 97303, 97304, 97305, 97306, 97308, 97309, 97310, 97311, 97312, 973

Website

https://www.makemusicsalem.org/

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