Festivals

The summer Tushetoba festival is held at Tusheti National Park, celebrating Tushetian cultural heritage and is traditionally opened with horse racing. While the horseracing is the highlight, other cultural shows and events take place, including traditional cheesemaking, shepherding, and embroidery. Tusheti National Park is one of Georgia’s most well-known hiking areas.

The annual Art Gene festival  at the Tbilisi Open Air Museum of Ethnography features traditional singing and dancing to celebrate Georgian artistic culture, particularly the region’s popular polyphonic singing. Other events in the past have included ballet and craft-making. Events are held around Georgia and then culminate with the annual festival in July. 

The annual Cheese Festival in Georgia celebrates Caucasian cheese-making. Each region has their own flavors, from the dambal-khacho to spicy Guda matured in a bag made of sheepskin. In 2015 the festival became international and includes Armenia and Azerbaijan who share in the Caucasian tradition of cheese-making, the festival moving to different locations depending on the outcome of the events. 

A vibrant cultural festival held in the rarely visited region of Shatili, Shatiloba takes place in the highlands region of Khevsureti near Chechnya, featuring horse races, traditional music, Georgian wrestling and folk dancers. Attended by very few outsiders, the rugged region is famous for its adventure sports. 

Held in Batumi, Georgia’s Las Vegas on the Black Sea, the Black Sea Jazz Festival is the most important jazz music event in the region and today includes a variety of musicians and styles — with recent years including Snoop Dogg, Robert Plant, and Lauryn Hill.