New Year Celebrations Planned for Yerevan

The government today approved a decision placing the responsibility for organizing the main New Year events on the Yerevan city hall. This was reported by the press secretary of the Yerevan city council, Hakob Karapetyan, through his Facebook page.

“Previously, the executive body had made a decision allowing organizations and departments conducting cultural activities to make purchases from a single source, based on the specifics of the purchases. Following more than a month of discussions with the Yerevan city hall, the government decided to expand the scale of festive events taking place in Yerevan.

Starting from December 21, with the ceremony to light the city’s main Christmas tree, a series of events is planned in the capital over the course of 16 days. Specifically, a fairy-tale city will be constructed around the fountains in Republic Square, a Christmas Market will operate in the 2750th anniversary park of Yerevan, and an overhead crossing with bridges connecting the peripheral “edges” of the square will be installed to link the central ring with the main Christmas tree. A creative display of Christmas trees will also be set up on Northern Avenue, among other attractions.

The highlight of the festivities will occur on New Year’s Eve. As already reported, the world-renowned Goran Bregović will perform with his band in Republic Square.

I know that taxpayers (and my journalist colleagues, in particular) are interested in the amount of money allocated for the festive events. According to the government decision, 271,797,000 drams have been allocated, which will complement the approximately 54 million provided by the Yerevan budget. The events will be organized by four companies, three of which were determined through joint discussions between the Government, the Yerevan city hall, and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports: 'HAEK Construction' LLC, 'Stage Style' LLC, and 'Factory Production' LLC. The fourth company will be chosen by the Yerevan city hall.

The first image shows a sketch of the design for Republic Square. A complete presentation will be provided in the coming days,” wrote Karapetyan.