Armenia at 35! Independence Day Celebrations in Yerevan 2026

Armenia celebrating 35 years of independence with a HUGE Republic Square concert in Yerevan! live music, drones making shapes of birds, performances, lights and an Independence Day speech

GENERAL INFO

🇦🇲 EVENT: Armenia’s 35th Independence Day Celebrations
📅 DATE: Monday, 21 September 2026
📍 LOCATION: Republic Square, Yerevan, Armenia
🏛️ HISTORICAL DATE: Independence referendum held on 21 September 1991
🎶 ENTERTAINMENT: Live concert, orchestra, choir and popular Armenian performers
🎤 SPECIAL ADDRESS: Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
✨ THEME: Enduring State

WOW! Republic Square looked a little different tonight!

21 SEP 2026, Armenia celebrated 35 years of independence! and of course the centre of the celebrations was right here in Republic Square

CELEBRATING ARMENIA? ~ What was Pashinyans Speech all about?

What was Pashinyan’s speech about? <– watch the speech here

His central message was essentially “the state is the citizen, and the citizen is the state.” He began by recalling the 1991 independence referendum, saying Armenians overwhelmingly chose independence because they wanted to live in a country that was free, secure, democratic, prosperous and sovereign.

A major theme was peace. Pashinyan said Armenia was celebrating its 35th anniversary “in an atmosphere of peace,” but argued that this had come at an enormous human cost. He then asked the crowd to observe a minute’s silence for those who died defending the country, followed by applause in their memory.

He connected this to the evening’s “Enduring State” theme. His argument was that Armenia’s independent state is the most important thing Armenians collectively possess because, in his view, it provides the means to preserve Armenian identity and culture, continue Armenian history, and allow citizens to determine their own future.

Another important part of the speech was about the relationship between citizens and government. He said the state exists to provide citizens with security, prosperity, freedom and happiness, while citizens strengthen the state through things such as education, work and paying taxes. He linked this idea to government programmes in education, housing, healthcare, the armed forces and social and economic policy.

He finished with one of the clearest lines of the speech:

“Citizen of the Republic of Armenia, the state is you, you are the Republic of Armenia.”

So it wasn’t primarily a speech recounting Armenia’s 35 years of history. It was much more about what Armenian independence should mean now: statehood, peace, sovereignty, individual citizenship and strengthening the Republic of Armenia.

35 years of independence! – we arrived many hours before the start of the festival and got prime location at the front, but did have to stand on our feet for close to 5 hours!

Thousands of people packed into the square for a huge evening of live music, lights, projections, performances and some seriously impressive staging

It was mentioned it could have been around 40,000 people! I noticed this year there were soooo many more tourists in the crowd than previous years so its becoming a more international celebration which is great!

THE PRIME MINISTERS SPEECH

Nikol Pashinyan came on stage and gave a long speech, his message was “the state is the citizen and the citizen is the state” he mentioned the referendum that was signed in 1991 and that Armenians overwhelmingly wanted independence because they wanted a country that was free, secure democratic prosperous and soverign.

He spoke about what independence means to us today… he spoke about an “enduring state” (what does that mean) does it sound like we are just enduring things that go on around us? I was a little confused about that… but maybe its Armenias independence, culture and identity that needs to be endured? I dont know, its a bit catch 22

A major theme was peace but did say that came at a huge human cost and we had a minute of silence for those who died defending the country – (arent these the guys that make people go to war in the first place?)

I also love how he snuck the word “tax” in his speech as well… hmmm – interesting stuff

CONCERT LINE UP

* Armenian State Symphony Orchestra
* Hovhannes Tchekidjian National Academic Choir
* Karen-Sevak Band
* Tata Simonyan
* Arman Hovhannisyan
* Iveta Mukuchyan
* Aram MP3
* Saro Tovmasyan
* Roland Gasparyan
* Sona Rubenyan
* Liparit Avetisyan
* Gevorg Hakobyan
* Sergey Smbatyan (Conductor)

What in the Gottard tunnel olympics opening ceremony performance was this!?

Im going to be honest, I was NOT expecting this, compared to last years performance, where are the traditional women in the typical Armenian outfits – not 1 the whole night?? 😳

Then the festivities started… and seriously, at times it felt less like a normal concert and more like the opening ceremony of the Olympics! Its very westernised this year and very much a darker theme than previous years where we are all used to Armenian outfits and the traditional Armenian “bar” dancing style, we didnt end up seeing much of that, which I wasnt too happy about tbh

These actors were walking around with books and light bulbs bopping on their heads – I really did asking myself, what is so Armenian and traditional about this?? felt like brain washing to me… these guys didnt even look Armenian…

The a ballerina dances from a hidden door in the stage – granted the projections were awesome this year – loved this stone eagle – I dont get the ballerina in our traditions but okayyyy

More brainwashing in progress LOL – I was not surprised after this… dancers dragged out white stairs onto the middle of the stage…

And started dancing on top of them… im not sure what tradition this was meant to address??? I looked around the crowd and everyone was sort of in utter shock at this stage, no one was dancing… usually people would start singing along with the Armenian songs or hold hand ands start the “shoorjabar” but we had no armenian beats to dance to it was loud “duff duff” music and loud voices speaking…

AND FINALLY NOWWWW THE CROWD STARTS CHEERING AND DANCING AND CLAPPING!

The Armenian music starts finally as the weird dancers with the weird white stairs leave the stage and our Armenian men start doing their traditional dancing!

Wow the crowd burst out into life at this stage since the opening of this ceremony thing… clapping and woot wooting and it only lasted around 1 minute before the group of men danced off… oh well… thats like 1% of the opening ceremony was actually traditional Armenian… 🤷🏻‍♀️ whats going on here…. I know but i prob shouldnt voice it

Ah haaaa some armenian traditional carpet designs and our armenian men dancing in a row… now we talking a little bit! This was what I was expecting more of in the opening ceremony

And not that that wasnt enough, the drones on the end of the wings spurt out some fire! incredible… incredible sight, this was prob my fav part of the night, oh and the fireworks 🎉

The Pheonix in all its drone glory! awesome!

The drones then made a 35 in the sky

And then obediently descended back into their enclosures… much like how I guess they want us to be right?

The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra & The Academic Choir were the highlight on stage and performed amazingly!

Roland Gasparyan

Iveta Mukuchyan – she was quite funky

Some more random ballerina popping out the door

And some cool castle images and Armenian relic projections which the orchestra performed

Ok, here we got a few Armenian costumes waving their arms about for a while, loving the armenian font at the back with a singer coming out the door on the stage (can you see him??)