FESTIVALS AND EVENTS
Vayots Dzor hosts several festivals throughout the year which showcase local wines, foods, traditions, and activities.
Depending on the time of year you visit, Vayots Dzor’s unique festivals and events give you a chance to actually take part in local traditions and pastimes. Whether it’s drinking homemade wine and vodka, enjoying Armenian dancing at the Areni Wine Festival, or enjoying traditional Armenian sweetbread at the aptly named Gata Festival, you’re sure to find something that will satisfy your culinary and cultural desires.
ARENI WINE FESTIVAL
The villages of Rind and Areni usually host this festival in autumn. On the first day of festivities, Rind, a small village very close to Areni, holds a competition where local neighborhoods display their best-prepared food and drinks. Visit their booths to grab a taste of Rind’s best eats. During the competition, local school children perform traditional Armenian dances and songs.
The following day, festivities continue in the village of Areni. This day attracts thousands of people from around Armenia and the world. The main street of Areni is lined with local wine vendors selling homemade wines. In a designated area, Armenia’s best and most famous winemakers offer tastings of their products. The village center hosts continual Armenian dancing and music, where you are encouraged to join the groups of tourists and professionals dancing!
GATA FESTIVAL
Celebrated in September, this festival in Khachik village features all things gata related. The Gata festival was first organized in 2013.
Gata is a traditional Armenian sweet bread made from a combination of oil, eggs, milk cream and flour. The highlight of the festival includes a two and a half-meter round gata which reached 4 meters in diameter in 2017. Several villagers work many days in advance preparing this colossal gata, which requires over 250 kilograms of flour and 50 eggs! Villagers bake it in 10 large pieces and arrange the final product on a table, where they stick the pieces together with honey and decorate the gata with braids and ornaments.
The festival officially begins with a gata blessing and cutting ceremony. The festival officiate symbolically distributes the first pieces to soldiers who are stationed at the village’s military base. After the ceremony, visit the various food stands to taste different varieties of gata. Besides the giant gata of the festival, the village women also make other types of gatas for the festival; in different recipes, sizes and fillings. As innovation, in order to be different, each booth-entertainment of the festival tends to perform their new types of gatas with different original ornaments and records, some of which are for sale, while others are just for tasting and showing their own culinary skills. Once you have had your fill of gata enjoy traditional Armenian music and dance.
Bite into a slice of gata, a traditional Armenian sweet bread, to experience a truly Armenian taste. Made with only oil, eggs, milk cream and flour, gata is a sweet treat prepared for special occasions. Traditional gata is round due to its usual preparation in a tonir oven. While it is baked for more commonplace holidays like Easter and the New Year, it is also prepared for weddings and when sending young men off to their compulsory military service. Gata recipes are closely guarded by families and passed on through generations, usually through oral traditions and long hours spent in the kitchen.
