The second annual “One Nation, One Culture” pan-Armenian cultural festival. It almost sounds majestic. Not because the government spent 117 million AMD and not because it is the second festival. There were about 2,000 participants from Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. The events took place in all the elegant auditoriums and theatres of Yerevan. All the Armenian groups and individuals from Kazakhstan, Syria, France and other countries had the opportunity to perform a song or dance number at the hall named after Arno Babajanyan and the Gabril Sundukyan theatre. This must have inspired the performers from the Armenian Diaspora. But the events are less interesting for the people living in the capital city. It’s really hard to picture the person living in the city get encouraged to witness the concert of a non-professional group from abroad. The first annual cultural festival took place in the capital city too. Thus, it was evident that the second (and more) festivals were going to attract less people each time. Based on that reason alone, we could assume that the event organizers wouldn’t only focus on Yerevan. The Armenian from the Diaspora isn’t only interested in Yerevan. The festival organizers know this and have tried to organize field trips/visits to the regions of Armenia. Just field trips and nothing else when they could have organized the entire festival in one of the regions of Armenia. I assume that in that case, the festival really would have been pan-Armenian and more and more people would be encouraged. The groups from the Diaspora and the people living in the region would also be encouraged. The latter don’t have the opportunity to see the concerts in the capital city. Of course, the event organizers can contradict and say that no region has the necessary substructures for this kind of festival. If we take it from that perspective, then really, no region will ever have substructures. But if we recall the 117 million AMD from the state budget, we can see that instead of spending that much to attract people from Yerevan, that money could be spent for renovating the cultural homes in the regions. As a result, Armenians from the Diaspora would realize that Armenia doesn’t end with just Garni-Geghard and Tsakhkadzor. They would see that Goris and Ijevan are also very beautiful. True, they might say that Goris only has water for four hours-two hours in the morning, and two at night. But it’s hard to say that that will make them less patriotic. After all, not all of them have come here from great countries. The Republic Square in Yerevan has turned into a construction site. A month ago, they were setting up the stage for the concert dedicated to school graduates and then they set it up for the closing ceremony of the “One Nation, One Culture” festival. I imagine how much more inspiring that ceremony would be if it were to take place in the central square of Ijevan, whereas it’s simply going to turn into another event taking place in the capital city. An event, which will continue bearing the strange name “One Nation, One Culture”. Any explanatory dictionary defines a nation as a community with one (united) culture. I don’t know why the event organizers think that we Armenians have one culture. They probably want us Armenians spread all over the world to have one, capital city culture. This brings the creative groups from the Armenian Diaspora to perform in the biggest auditoriums of Armenia. Of course, the festival organizers may justify themselves and say that the cultural homes are no longer of any value and the Arams and Burchos out there are organizing their concerts there now. But I must say that this is a very weak justification, even for those who doubt that Armenians have one culture when they say one nation. There is one more flaw here. The organizers must really have had talent to set the wrong dates for the events. The festival began on June 23 and ended on June 30, right when we have the soccer championship. The person sitting in front of the television watching soccer won’t want to go and see a concert, even if he is going to sing or dance on stage. We must accept the fact that soccer is a serious argument to be brought up for justifying any kind of failure.
