On July 3, the nine Diaspora Armenian dance ensembles participating in the “My Armenia” Pan-Armenian Festival organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora visited the city of Spitak and laid flowers in front of the monument to the victims of the Spitak Earthquake.

Afterwards, a concert was held at the concert hall of Charles Aznavour Cultural Chamber in Vanadzor with performances by Lebanon’s Arin, Tbilisi’s Ani and Jeyran, Javakhk’s Javakhk, Maikop’s Nairi, Ukraine’s Arax, Khabarovsk’s Shirak, France’s Ara and Terpsikhora’s Pyatigorsk dance ensembles.

The concert also included performances by shvi player Sargis Alexanyan of Vanadzor, dudukist Vhan Sofyan, singer Ashot Mkhitaryan, Vanadzor’s Ani Dance Ensemble and reciter Ivan Antonyan.

Head of the Cultural Division of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport of Lori regional council Aram Revazyan expressed gratitude to the RA Ministry of Culture for organizing the festival, which will help further strengthen the Homeland-Diaspora relations. Mr. Revazyan mentioned that the citizens of Vanadzor warmly received the Diaspora Armenians who don’t spare efforts to disseminate Armenian dance and culture abroad.

The representative of the Lori regional council granted letters of gratitude to the participants for preserving, developing and disseminating Armenian dance in the Diaspora.

Deputy director of the “My Armenia” Pan-Armenian Festival Eduard Yesayants expressed gratitude to the Lori regional council and the citizens of Vanadzor for hosting the Diaspora Armenians and properly organizing the concert. Yesayants also mentioned that the participants of the first festival always remember and share stories about their concert in Vanadzor.

In the end, all the participants performed an Armenian round-dance to the song by Leyla Saribekyan.