It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s A Giant Baby

Baby You. Photo courtesy of Make Music Alliance.

On Friday, June 21 a group of artists will inflate and release a giant baby balloon in Veterans Park.

Why? To celebrate an international day of music appreciation — any overlap with Summerfest is merely coincidental — and a Polish magazine launching an English-language version of their publication in the U.S.

If it doesn’t make sense, that’s ok. The bottom line is that a giant baby will fly over Milwaukee and there will be music.

The occasion for the baby balloon is Make Music Day. The international celebration began in France in the early 1980s and today is celebrated across the world. The day is about celebrating music everywhere and in all its forms, not just the music made and performed by professionals.

In Milwaukee, this takes the form of small, free concerts by local community members in parks, on sidewalks and just about anywhere.

The celebration is held every year on or around the summer solstice. This year, 23 communities across Wisconsin with local Make Music chapters will organize celebrations. The event is promoted in Wisconsin by Create Wisconsin, a nonprofit concerned with community cultural development.

“We’ve always been a general service organization concerned with everything in the arts, in any way, in any and all parts of the state, said Anne Katz, director of Create Wisconsin. “So Make Music Day fits in perfectly with what we do, because it’s all about music as a universal language and all about helping people express themselves through music.”

The giant inflatable baby comes into play thanks in part to Aaron Friedman, executive director of the Make Music Alliance, Katz said. Friedman worked with a Polish Foundation called Przekrój Foundation to turn the launch of this baby balloon into a musical event to celebrate and promote both Make Music Day and the launch of their magazine called Przekrój.

The baby will be inflated to a “colossal” 112-feet-long, the music group says. Once inflated in Veterans Park the baby will be serenaded by a 100-person choir conducted by Lee Stovell and singing an acapella work by composer Michael Schachter.

“It’s not a surreal dream, but the extraordinary U.S. launch of Przekrój, an iconic Polish magazine that served as a cultural lifeline to millions of Poles during the Cold War,” said Revaz Grigolidze, a public relations specialist with PKPP, which is promoting the launch of the baby and the magazine.

The balloon art piece, called “Baby You” is “a symbol for the potential in all of us that’s waiting to be awakened, unlimited, and endless as the sky,” according to the foundation. It’s being launched in Milwaukee because the city “represents the heartland of America, with a history of independent thinking and, of course, a vibrant Polish community,” Grigolidze said.

So, on Friday, June 21, if you find yourself around the lakefront around 7 p.m., look in the direction of Veterans Park, and you may see a giant floating baby and hear the ethereal sound of 100 singing voices