A Taste of Colombia in Yerevan, Armenia

Yerevan has really been exceeding all expectations by throwing out all kinds of little festivals and concerts throughout the city this summer. I wasn't here last year to see what was going on, and missed everything. Though, even if you are here in Yerevan you're still likely to miss something because there's just next to no advertising of many of these events; for you to only find out about them once they've ended and everyone's posting clips on social media. The other day there was a festival around Armenian culture which had some music, public dances, and a few cultural market stalls for people to purchase from independent businesses. And within the Season's Park, the following day was a stage being put up. I looked online and there was nothing about it. No information at all. 

The best decision was to just go back later on and see if there's any more context. And there was! Just as the time hit 8PM an announcer appeared, though there wasn't much of a crowd beyond those who were just happening to be in the park already on a regular Wednesday evening. I can't really understand much Armenian, so I didn't really get what was being said, though the stage was finally set and a screen displayed something in Spanish. So, this post will probably be a bit relatable to some of the South American posters here on Hive! Following was a few introductions, to which it was made clear that the event was to commemorate the newly established economic ties between Armenia and Colombia, and through this was a sharing of culture by having some performers come and sing some Spanish music.

This was such a great thing to see in Yerevan, where different cultures aren't really displayed and life in the city can sometimes feel a bit empty, especially on the warmer days where everyone avoids being outside. This former Soviet Republic is still only really just being discovered by tourists around the world, with most tourism at the moment coming from its neighbours it shares history with, as well as some more eastern nations like China. Though even then, I think this might be the first time I've seen the city itself actually celebrating the culture of another nation. To speak on the music itself: I can't really say what the genre was, though I do think it was really fun. It had a lot of energy to it, and the performances from the singer and the instrument players was really good, with just four of them in total. One person dressed in some sort of cultural clothing with a mask.

Perhaps someone from South America could chime in here, but there was a strong theme regarding an eye. On the screen was an eye, and the performer in the mask that would sometimes dance, they were slowly painting over an eye model. I can't say I really know much about Colombia, nor its history and culture, even the folklore, but perhaps there's something there that I had missed? I was definitely quite curious about that particular side of things, and focused a lot of my time there listening to the music and just trying to find some interesting compositions in the performers, especially with how gestural the dancing was! I think you can see that in some of the images I took. And I really tried here, despite the crowd and the natural light disappearing. I switched lenses three times and finally settled on my more neglected 85mm prime lens, which I think really helped a lot to get beyond the crowd.

I think the concert would've been a bit better with more performers in that sort of cultural clothing though, and some of that being because the photographers at the event just would swarm them and nobody in the crowd could really see what was going on. People around a bit frustrated in the lack of views for what arguably was the most unique thing they'd seen in a long time. The lack of marketing also didn't help, the crowd was incredibly small given how big the market was the days prior. And the music was genuinely really good!