YEREVAN, JUNE 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The Golden Guitar 2007 republic festival of singer-songwriting is being held on June 21-30 in Yerevan and Dilijan on the initiative of the RA Ministry of Culture, the Ovation producer center, and the Culture Development Charity Fund. As Samvel Mesropian, the festival's Director, reported at the June 28 press conference, the obligatory condition for participation in the festival is the songs' performance only in Armenian and to the sole accompaniment of a guitar. Karine Khodikian, the RA Deputy Minister of Culture, said that the genre of singer-songwriting has been ignored in recent years in Armenia. In her words, the Ministry is trying to contribute to the popularization of that genre by assisting in the festival's organisation. It was mentioned that 1.5m drams was allocated from the state budget for the holding of the first festival in 2006, while 2.5m drams (nearly 7 thousand USD) has been allocated this year. In the words of Eduard Zorikian, a song writer, the festival's goal is to sum up the latest achievements in the genre of art of singing, to reveal new musicians performing their own songs, and to contribute to the activization of creative contacts among them. It was also mentioned that festival's gala concerts will take place on June 29-30 at the Yerevan H. Paronian Theater of Comedy.

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