As it turned out, the weekend we chose to visit Tbilisi was also the weekend of a major annual festival, called Tbilisoba. Tbilisoba is an annual October festival which celebrates the diversity and history of Tbilisi and the autumn harvest. Farmers and villagers from all corners of Georgia flock to the capital to display and sell their produce. The city turns into one enormous farmer’s market, overflowing with grapes, persimmons, wine, honey, churchkhela (the Georgian candy made with grape must, nuts and flour) and dried fruit. The city was bustling with people in celebratory mood, street musicians, produce displays, stalls selling handicrafts, fresh & dried fruit, floral garlands, it was a wonderful atmosphere. There were concerts and other more structured events too, but we still wanted to continue exploring the city.
And here’s the band in action. I want to call them a marching band, but there wasn’t a great deal of marching. The base drummer was so enthusiastic!
We had read that Georgians love fireworks, and indeed every night we saw fireworks from our hotel in different places throughout the city. On the night of Tbilisoba however, was the biggest fireworks display of all, and very close to our hotel, we had a fabulous view and could feel the windows rattling! That was an unexpected treat!
If you are planning a trip to Tbilisi, here are some resources you might find helpful:
- All my Tbilisi posts can be found here.
- I have saved lots of helpful articles I found to my Georgia Pinterest board.
- I purchased this guidebook on Kindle. It had only one very negative review, but I’m not sure why. We found it very helpful, and particularly enjoyed the self-guided walks. (Note – not an affiliate link, just a recommendation): A City Guide to Tbilisi, Georgia by Stephen Stocks
