The story
Garni-Geghard Art Fest in Garni/Geghard
A summer music and cultural festival staged beside the ancient Temple of Garni, Armenia's only surviving pagan monument, combining live performances with hiking through the dramatic basalt Garni Gorge near the UNESCO-listed Geghard Monastery. Its ancient temple setting gives contemporary performance a historical weight rarely matched elsewhere in Armenia.
Garni Music and Cultural Festival sets contemporary performance against one of Armenia's most extraordinary ancient backdrops, staging its programme directly beside the Temple of Garni, the only surviving pagan monument anywhere in the country, a classical Hellenistic structure built in the first century AD under King Tiridates I and dedicated to Mithra, the pagan sun god.