Dear reader,
I decided to share with you one of the best trips I experienced in my life, which will probably never be repeated again.
Let’s go!
April 2015, Berlin… Waiting for the departure. Our plane is leaving for Moscow Sheremetyevo and then the final stop – Zvartnots Airport near Yerevan. All seven in the “gang” were super excited and decided to break the excitement with some beers. After landing in Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow we had to wait for the next flight, so an important decision was made… To find a temporary asylum at an airport bar which served expensive beer. We were okay with it, as long as our throats would no longer be dehydrated.
After a few more hours rubbing our butts on the blue seats of Aeroflot, we landed in the little round Airport of Yerevan called Zvartnots. We could see taxi drivers around the airport hunting travellers. So, logically we got hunted by one of them. The rest of the “gang” was picked up by our Armenian friends. It was past 4 AM as we arrived home, so we went to sleep directly.
I wish I could rest longer but Yerevan is a city which never sleeps, so we decided to go out after 4 hours of sleep.
Luckily we did not have to walk too far to find a bar to taste the first Armenian beer. Well, I can confirm that German beers are the best ones in the beer world but the Armenian ones were also good, especially Gyumri, which we used to buy with big bottles.
This story started with beer but actually it was going to be about music and culture, so let’s go in the right direction.
We arrived in Yerevan for the Metal Attack Festival which was going to take place on April 18.
Metal Attack was a great experience for our travelling bands Aralez and 4 Packs a Day. The audience in Yerevan and in general in Armenia is very close to musicians and we, as musicians, could feel the attitude and support which came from the music fans standing directly in front of the stage. Compared with German music fans those people were free and did not have the complex to get close to the stage or climb on it and bang their heads with us. They sang and screamed, danced and shared drinks with musicians, exchanged hugs and contacts.
Those people were real fans at heart and metal / rock music was their lifestyle and not only 3-4 hours of activity which just filled their empty lives. After the concert people decided to meet at a bar to continue the good and friendly time to exchange interesting stories and experiences.
To be continued…
Please follow the links below in order to find out more about the bands mentioned above.
ARALEZ -> https://www.facebook.com/aralezband
4 PACKS A DAY -> https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100033613451559
Photos from the private archive of Margarita Zakaryan (2015)
© Margarita Zakaryan 2023
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