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Festival, an arts and music festival scheduled to be held in Dilijan, Armenia, on 23-25 September, has been postponed until 2023 in the wake of the latest Azerbaijani attack on Armenia, organizers said in a statement on Saturday. The full statement is provided below.

"With a heavy heart we’ve stopped all further works on the this year's edition and have postponed Urvakan to 2023. The escalation of conflict on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan came as a shock to us and despite the fact that the sides have come to a ceasefire agreement, it is very hard to predict how this will continue to develop in the next days.

This was a tough decision to make as this is not the first time we've been forced to postpone. In 2020 the COVID pandemic put a global halt on events, then the wars raging around us in Artsakh and Ukraine did not even let us think of a new edition for some time. This year we tried hard to relaunch Urvakan considering new realities that our region and the world are facing. While we were developing the festival some of its topics became even more real, and now we observe aggressive actions of authoritarian leaders yet again.

On the night from 13th to 14th of September armed forces of Azerbaijan shelled Goris, Sotk, Jermuk, and other settlemens on Armenian territory close to the border. By now there's already more than 100 victims among Armenia’s military as well as several civilians. Attacks close to the border of the two countries are a grim reality that have come as an aftermath of Azerbaijan's invasion of Artsakh in 2020. The settlements in Artsakh have been shelled every other month since, yet it's barely covered by International news. The difference now is that Azerbaijan attacked cities within the internationally recognized territories of Armenia.

Regardless of the current ceasefire agreement, the uncertainty of the situation is too strong, our first priority is safety of our guests and artists. We’re just one week away from the festival dates, so even if everything will remain calm, the moods in the country are currently far from the cultural agenda. Yesterday we had a meeting with Tavush municipality, where the festival site is located this year. Being close to the Azerbaijani border- they are concerned about the risks and they don’t recommend going ahead with planning the festival at this time.

It's not an easy decision for us, but we hope that our friends and audience will continue to support us. We stand with Armenia, and hope that time for Urvakan will finally come.

Please visit our bio to find some information about the history of this conflict, as well as a list of ways to help victims and thousands of refugees from the South-Eastern Armenian boarder.

To issue a refund on your ticket please contact your provider directly, otherwise you can also keep the ticket for the future festival, or donate it, we will share more information about these options and other ways to support soon.

We are looking forward to reuniting very soon under other circumstances."