Fourth Annual Drone (Music) Day Is Today!
Any kind of sound can be music to somebody, and the holiday celebrating the experimental music made of drones and tones is back for another year. Launched in 2014, Drone Day is all about spreading the inclusivity and cooperation of drone music. It’s a genre that requires no musical knowledge whatsoever to participate – pitching in takes as little as picking a random tone and holding it for as long as you’d like! This year’s Drone Day, taking place today (May 27), sees communities across Canada and around the world holding grassroots events to spread the drone goodness.
Programming for this year’s events heavily focuses on the readily collaborative aspect of drone. Rather than hosting crowded shows, organizers will be providing listeners with art supplies, instruments, and spaces for meditation and contemplation. Sounds kind of far out, right? It’s unconventional and frankly weird, but that’s kind of the point of drone music in general – to be a bit different.
The annual celebration was cooked up by Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan, the editor in chief of Weird Canada and digger of drone. Flanagan especially emphasizes the communal aspect of the holiday in a press release, writing: “Drone Day is open to all: anyone can set up an event or livestream. Drone Day celebrations are dreamed into existence by community organizers, drone musicians, and communities just looking to drone. Drone Day celebrations are always reflective of the do-it-yourself and do-it-together communities who make each gathering happen.”
This year there are more Drone Day events ready to go than ever before. Whether it be a marathon 12-hour collaborative performance in Vancouver, an afternoon of drone, film, and yoga in Regina, an open drone jam in Halifax, or an introductory showcase in Toronto, the annual event has a little something going on in plenty of communities across the country. The Canadian initiative is building an international presence as well: events for the 2017 rendition are planned in Australia, Germany, Romania, and Bulgaria too!
For a full list of events and more information about Drone Day, check out their minimalist website. There are also archives of previous events and their corresponding live streams, so you can get a taste of what Drone Days past were like before heading out. But don’t hesitate – there are drones going right now!
