Meghri Hosts International Festival of Crafts This Weekend

Meghri, the subtropical border town at the tip of Syunik, hosts the 5th International Festival of Crafts on 16–17 May 2026. Around 40 artisans from Armenia and other CIS countries will gather to exhibit traditional crafts, run hands-on masterclasses, and fill the town with live music and national cuisine across two full days.

The festival lands at a particularly meaningful moment: Meghri has been designated the CIS Cultural Capital for 2026. The opening ceremony in April drew delegates from Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and the crafts festival is the centrepiece of the public programme — the event that turns the city’s streets into a working gallery.

Expect ceramics, textile weaving, woodwork, metalwork, and coppersmith demonstrations alongside the market stalls. Masterclasses are open to all skill levels, which makes this a rare chance to sit with a working artisan and attempt techniques passed down through generations. Traditional Armenian cuisine vendors and folk music performances run throughout both days.

Getting to Meghri from Yerevan takes around five hours by shared marshrutka or roughly three and a half hours by private car. The road south through the Vorotan Canyon is worth making time for, and the switchback descent into Meghri via the Meghri Pass rewards drivers who are not in a rush. If you have a spare day at either end, the Agarak border crossing into Iran is 12 kilometres further south.

We have a dedicated page for the International Festival of Crafts with logistics and what to expect. To build the festival into a longer trip, our 7-day south Armenia itinerary covers Tatev, Goris, Kapan and Meghri as a full Syunik circuit. For everything else happening across the country right now, see our Armenia in May guide.