STARMUS World Festival will be held in Armenia for the first time from September 5 to 10. Armenia will become a world center of science, technology, art, music, hosting famous people and scientists. The Government allocated about 2 million Euros for the festival.
Garik Israelyan (co-founder of STARMUS festival, astrophysicist) - STARMUS was brought to Armenia as a kind of experiment, our board of trustees was skeptical about it. We knew that the Government perceives us very well, but we did not know how the media and business would react, we already know how it will be, and it will be seen well in September.
Space, technology, science, art and music․ The program of the upcoming world festival in Armenia was presented. ‘Discover the cosmos and change the world’ conference will be held in the territory of the sports and concert complex with about 7000 participants.
The awarding ceremony of the Stephen Hawking Medal, which is recognized worldwide as the ‘Oscar’ for the publicity of science, will take place. There will be a round table discussion with the participation of Nobel Prize winners. The star-party in the presence of world-famous guests is planned in Garni.
Garik Israelyan - Science Camp: the territory adjacent to the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet will be turned into a large-scale center of science and technology, where the latest achievements of science will be presented to children and adults with large thematic pavilions. About 100,000 visitors are expected to participate, both from Yerevan and from the provinces of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
Space Technologies: the two-day Space Technologies conference will involve 20 world-renowned speakers. A program with the participation of Armenian universities is planned. The title of the festival is ‘STARMUS VI. 50 years on Mars’ dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first landing of Mars 3 space station.
Garik Israelyan - In contrast to Europe, where the cost of tickets to the festival was 700 Euros, it was decided to set a minimum, affordable price of AMD 25,000 (over $58) for the Armenian festival, for students it will be reduced to AMD 20,000 (over $46).
About 100 children and teenagers from Artsakh will take part in the festival. Garik Israelyan remotely hosted STARMUS board member David Eicher, Nobel Prize winner, neuroscientist Edvard Moser, musician Derek Sherinian. The message was sent by Queen Rock guitarist Brian May and Serj Tankian.
The festival has been held since 2011, the vision is to combine science and art, to inspire young people with discoveries.
