It’s summertime and that means more and more people are packing their bags and leaving their homes for a relaxing and eventful vacation. Among numerous dreamscape summer travel destinations on Earth, Armenia has its own place, should your interests lie in nature, culture or history. A landlocked mountainous country located in the Transcaucasia region, Armenia is overcrowded with tourists especially during the summer months that come to experience the country’s charming cities, hundreds of amazing sites, healing sanatoriums and active recreation from caving to hiking to shopping. To get a small taste of the marvels of Armenia, Yerevan is a great starting point.
Armenia’s vibrant capital and the center of all political, cultural and scientific activities, Yerevan is enriched with interesting museums and art galleries, a large number of historical and religious monuments (over 4,000), fascinating parks and gardens and booming restaurant scene. What draws many visitors to Yerevan is also the wealth of cultural events, festivities and holidays that fill the city with great mood and spirit. Today’s post is about some of the not-to-be-missed cultural and city-wide events in Yerevan expecting on the upcoming months. So, if you happen to visit Yerevan this year, make sure to consider them all.
Golden Apricot International Film Festival
Established in 2004 by the Golden Apricot Fund for Cinema Development, Yerevan International Film Festival GOLDEN APRICOT has always aroused great interest among world filmmakers and it’s worth mentioning that the film directors who are included in the competition program of the Cannes Film Festival have previously been invited to Golden Apricot Film Festival.
Held every year in the month of July to promote creativity in the field of video art and cinema, Golden Apricot Festival highlights the theme ‘Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations,’ trying to illustrate movies with various human experiences. The festival has many categories of competition, including short film, feature film, documentary film, animation, experimental, debut and student, as well as video art.
This year Golden Apricot Film Festival is celebrating its 9th year and is scheduled to take place from July 8 to July 15. According to Michael Stamboltsyan, festival’s program director, Golden Apricot will feature 150 films selected from 45 countries. Golden Apricot Film Festival is undoubtedly one of the main draws of Yerevan’s cultural calendar and is sure to delight film enthusiasts from around the world.
Independence Day
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yerevan became the capital of independent Republic of Armenia on September 21, 1991. Thus, every year on September 21 Armenia marks Independence Day. It’s a great holiday in all over the country, accompanied with numerous events, including military displays, concerts and fireworks. Yerevan’s Republic Square gets crowded from very early in the morning, as thousands of locals and Diasporan Armenians enjoy the display of Armenia’s vast military strength, including troops and tanks on the Square, as well as fighter jets over the celebratory capital city.
Numerous cultural events are also held throughout the capital, ranging from live music, crafts display and puppet shows. High mood continues to the evening, when celebratory events begin both in the Republic Square and at Liberty Square, Opera with performances by popular Armenian singers and bands, followed by fantastic fireworks shows that never fail to amaze with their beauty and unique colors.
Yerevan: World Book Capital 2012
Based on the positive experience of World Book and Copyright Day, launched in 1996, UNESCO initiated the concept of World Book capital City and nominated Madrid as the Capital for Year 2001. In 2012, the city of Yerevan was chosen as the World Book Capital for the quality and variety of its program that includes many different themes, as well as several activities for children, who will be the readers and authors of tomorrow. Yerevan will hold the title for one designated year until 22 April, 2013, during the year undertaking to organize and run a large number of events around books, literature and reading. The title is also used to promote tourism and draw national and international attention to the literary heritage of a city and nation.
2012 events to be held in Yerevan as a World Book Capital include:
- July-August 2012 – ‘Entrance with a book’ series of events
- September 8-15 2012 – ‘Week of Tumanyan fairy tales’ international festival and book exhibition
- September 21 2012 – A Masquerade of literary heroes
- September 12-22 2012 – “Literary Ark” International writers’ meeting in Armenia
- September 20-22 2012 – “Book talking” exhibition of translated literature
- September 22-24 2012 – VI forum of translators and publishers
- October 2012 – “Meeting place – the library” program dedicated to the International Librarian Day
- October 2012 – “Returning to the Book” international festival
- November 3 2012 – “Children’s book as the basis for the development of personality” conference
- December 2012 – “Eternity of the Word” exhibition-installation
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