Georgia: Tbilisoba 2024
ita engSince 1979, Tbilisi has held the Tbilisoba Festival, an autumn celebration that has become a long-standing tradition. A joyful carnival, with street performances, music and dance, culinary specialties and much more. This year, Tbilisoba offered family fun despite the decline in attendance and size. Photo and text by Onnik James Krikorian, from the Festival held on October 5-6, 2024
Last weekend saw the annual Tbilisoba held once again in the Georgian capital. Held every October since 1979, the event celebrates Tbilisi’s history through agricultural markets, traditional folk and dance performances, and contemporary rock and pop events. The only time that it was not held was during significant civil and political unrest in the country in the early 1990s before resuming in 1995.
In recent years, however, the event has declined in both attendance and size and this year the trend was particularly noticeable as some events, such as one at the Tbilisi Open Air Museum of Ethnography, were not even announced. Instead, Tbilisi’s Orbeliani Square was almost entirely transformed into open barbecue areas. Nonetheless, the colourful event was especially welcomed by children.
Marching bands, characters from western animated and fantasy movies, and children’s concerts did at least make up for the lower-key staging of the event compared to previous years. It seems unlikely, however, that it will ever return to the prominence afforded to it in previous decades. It was at least a pleasant respite from what will likely prove bitterly contested parliamentary elections later this month.
