Quick answer
If you can pick one window, come between late September and mid-October: the rtveli grape harvest runs across Kakheti, Tbilisoba takes over the capital for a weekend (usually the first one in October) and the weather is at its best. The other events worth building a trip around are the Alilo procession on 7 January, Orthodox Easter (12 April 2026, 2 May 2027), Lamproba in Svaneti in mid-February, and Art-Gene in Tbilisi in late July. Everything else is a bonus if you happen to be there.
- Public holidays
- 18 a year
- Tbilisoba
- early Oct
- Easter 2027
- 2 May
- Best month
- October
Dates on this page were checked in September 2026 against the organisers, Georgian news reports and the Labour Code's holiday list. Where 2026 dates had not been announced we say so and give the usual pattern. Festival organisers here confirm dates late, often two to four weeks out, so for anything you are flying in for, check the organiser's page or Tbilisi City Hall's news in the final month.
Which ones are worth a detour
Not every Georgian festival rewards a tourist. Some are extraordinary. Others you will notice only as a closed bank. This is the short list of events we would change travel dates for.
| Festival | When | Why go |
|---|---|---|
| Tbilisoba | Usually the first weekend of October; 2026 dates not yet announced | Tbilisi's own festival across Rike Park and the old town: regional food stalls, wine, concerts, free, two days. The best one for visitors. |
| Rtveli | Early September to mid-October | The grape harvest in Kakheti and every wine region. Not one event but a season; join a family harvest and you will be fed and toasted for hours. |
| Alilo | 7 January, 2pm | Thousands walk and sing from First Republic Square to Sameba Cathedral in Tbilisi on Orthodox Christmas. Moving even if you are not religious. |
| Lamproba | Mid-February (14 February 2026) | Torches carried to family graves in the snow around Mestia and the Svan villages, then a bonfire by the church. Nothing about it is packaged for visitors. |
| Art-Gene | 23-26 July 2026 | Folk and contemporary music, crafts and food at the Open Air Museum of Ethnography on a hillside above Tbilisi. The most visitor-friendly summer event. |
January: the long holiday
Georgia takes the first half of January seriously. The country winds down from New Year's Eve until Orthodox Epiphany on 19 January: offices empty, family tables stay laid for days, and Tbilisi is quiet in a way it never is otherwise. For visitors it is a good time, provided you know that restaurants and museums may be shut in the first week and that Gudauri is at its busiest.
| Event | Date | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| New Year | 1-2 January | Public holidays. Fireworks the night before are enormous and unregulated. Almost everything closed on the 1st. |
| Mekvleoba and Bedoba | 1-2 January | The first visitor over the threshold (the mekvle) sets the household's luck for the year. 2 January is the day of fate: spend it doing what you want the year to hold. |
| Orthodox Christmas | 7 January | Public holiday. Midnight liturgy, then the Alilo procession through Tbilisi in the afternoon. |
| Old New Year | 14 January | Julian New Year's Eve. Not an official holiday, but small fireworks and another family dinner. |
| Natlisgheba (Epiphany) | 19 January | Public holiday. Water is blessed in every church; at Paravani Lake in Javakheti a cross-shaped hole is cut in the ice for a plunge. |
The Alilo on 7 January is the one to see. The procession has been organised city-wide since 2000 and follows the same route every year: it leaves First Republic Square at 2pm, walks Rustaveli Avenue, crosses Freedom Square and the Baratashvili Bridge and reaches Sameba Cathedral around 4pm. Clergy, children in white and thousands of ordinary people sing and carry icons, collecting food, clothes and money for people in need along the way. City Hall closes the streets on the route as it passes, so do not plan a Bolt across the centre that afternoon; stand near Freedom Square by 2.30pm and let it come to you.
February: fire and frost
February is the quietest month for tourism, which is exactly why the events in it feel unstaged.
Lamproba (14 February 2026; mid-February in most years, the exact night varies by village) is Svaneti's festival of lamps. In Mestia and the villages around it, families make torches from birch or oak, carry them to their relatives' graves after dark and set them alight, and a bonfire is fed in front of the church in the centre of Mestia. It is sometimes compared to the Mexican Day of the Dead, and the comparison is fair: it is about the living keeping company with the dead. Getting there in February means snow and thin transport, so time it with a ski or winter trip rather than travelling in for one night.
Gemo Fest Mestia (21-22 February 2026, Seti Square) is a food festival run by the National Tourism Administration as one of a series of regional editions. Sixteen local producers cooked in 2026: kubdari (meat-stuffed bread), tashmijabi (cheese beaten into mashed potato) and Svan salt on everything. It ran alongside the Freeride World Tour stop at Tetnuldi, and extra Natakhtari to Mestia flights were added for the week.
Tbilisi Open Air, Winter Edition (28 February to 1 March 2026) put the summer festival's electronic and indie line-up on the slopes at Gudauri for the first time. Whether it returns in 2027 is up to the promoter, so check tkt.ge from January.
March and April: spring, Easter and Batumi
| Event | Date | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Mother's Day | 3 March | Public holiday. Florists sell out, restaurants fill with families. |
| International Women's Day | 8 March | Public holiday, taken seriously: flowers, gifts, long lunches. Every woman you meet will be wished a happy day. |
| National Unity Day | 9 April | Public holiday commemorating the 9 April 1989 tragedy. Wreath-laying at the memorial outside the old parliament on Rustaveli Avenue. Sombre, not festive. |
| Orthodox Easter | 12 April 2026, 2 May 2027 | The most important religious holiday. Four public holidays, Good Friday to Easter Monday. Midnight liturgy, red eggs, paska bread. |
| Batumoba | 28 April | Batumi's city day, marking city status granted on 28 April 1888. Concerts, parades and fireworks on the seafront. The city has moved it to early June in some years, so check gobatumi.com. |
Orthodox Easter matters more than Christmas to most Georgians. The midnight service at Sameba is the biggest: the cathedral fills, the flame is passed candle to candle until the whole building glows, and the crowd spills into the grounds. Families dye eggs red and set an enormous table. Banks, offices and many restaurants close from Good Friday through Easter Monday (10-13 April in 2026; 30 April to 3 May in 2027). Our Orthodox Easter guide has the practical version: where to go, what to wear, what closes and how not to get in the way.
May: wine, independence and family
May is when the year opens up. The weather turns warm, the mountain roads start to clear, and Tbilisi's festival season begins with wine.
| Event | Date | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Zero Compromise | 1-2 May 2026 | Natural wine fair in Tbilisi run by the qvevri producers themselves; the best single room for meeting small growers. |
| Kolga Tbilisi Photo | 1-4 May 2026 | Photography festival with exhibitions across the city, most of them free. |
| Gviriloba (Kutaisoba) | 2 May 2026 | Kutaisi's city day, named for the daisy. Concerts and a parade in the centre. |
| New Wine Festival | Second Saturday of May (9 May 2026, expected 8 May 2027) | Mtatsminda Park, 11am to 6pm, free. The opening of a qvevri to the singing of Mravalzhamier, then family cellars from every region pouring the new vintage. Named from 2026 after its founder, Malkhaz Kharbedia. |
| Victory Day | 9 May | Public holiday. Wreath-laying at war memorials; otherwise a normal day. |
| St Andrew's Day | 12 May | Public holiday for the apostle credited with bringing Christianity to Georgia. Church services, little else. |
| Family Sanctity Day | 17 May | Public holiday since 2024, originated by the Orthodox Church. Processions and services in Tbilisi. |
| Independence Day | 26 May | Public holiday marking the 1918 declaration of the First Republic. Ceremonies and concerts on Freedom Square and Rustaveli Avenue, flags everywhere, fireworks in the evening. |
The New Wine Festival is the one to plan for if you like Georgian wine. It is where you meet the family operations making a few hundred bottles from grape varieties nobody outside the country has heard of, and it costs nothing to walk in. Take the funicular or a Bolt up to Mtatsminda before noon, before the queues at the popular tables form.
June to August: mountains and the coast
Tbilisi in July and August regularly tops 30°C by mid-afternoon, so locals leave for the mountains and the coast and the festivals follow them. The highland feasts below are the real thing: village saints' days that happen to be extraordinary to witness, not events staged for visitors.
| Event | When | Where and what |
|---|---|---|
| Lomisoba | 3 June 2026 | Pilgrimage up to Lomisi church above Zemo Mleta on the Military Highway; sheep are sacrificed and the ridge fills with families. Steep two-hour climb. |
| Tbilisi Cheese Festival | 7 June 2026 | Mtatsminda Park. Producers from every region, tastings, one afternoon. |
| Tbilisi Open Air | 4-5 July 2026 | Lisi Lake, Tbilisi. The country's biggest outdoor music festival, 15th edition in 2026; international headliners plus Georgian rock and electronic acts. Tickets on tkt.ge. |
| Black Sea Jazz Festival | 10-12 July 2026 | Batumi. Nineteenth edition, built in 2026 around the Miles Davis centenary. Ticketed main stage plus free seafront shows. |
| Art-Gene | 23-26 July 2026 | Open Air Museum of Ethnography, Tbilisi. Four days of folk and contemporary music, crafts and regional food. Day tickets 60-90 GEL (about $23-34), four-day pass 145-190 GEL (about $55-73). |
| Kvirikoba | 28 July | Kala, Upper Svaneti. Saint's day at the Lagurka church on the cliff above the village, with feasting and traditional games. |
| Atnigenoba and Tushetoba | Late July through August | Tusheti and Khevsureti. A cycle of village feasts starting 100 days after Easter; horse races, khinkali, felt work and song. Tushetoba in Omalo is the biggest gathering; its date is set locally each year. |
| Shuamtoba | 2 August 2026 | Beshumi, upper Adjara. Mountain summer festival with horse racing and wrestling on the pastures. |
| Peristsvaleba | 19 August | Transfiguration. Big in Tusheti and the mountain regions, with church services and family tables. |
| One Caucasus | 20-22 August 2026 | Tserakvi, Kvemo Kartli. Small international music and arts festival in a village near the Armenian border, free camping. |
| Mariamoba (Dormition) | 28 August | Public holiday nationwide. Church services, family feasts. |
Tushetoba is the standout if you can get there. Tusheti is reached by one of the most demanding roads in the Caucasus, open only from about June to early October, and during the festival season the villages fill with Tush families back from the lowlands for the summer. Horse races on the pasture above Omalo, wrestling, communal tables and not much sign of tourism. Our Tusheti road guide covers the drive and the 4x4 question honestly.
Art-Gene is the accessible option. The museum is a hillside above Turtle Lake with traditional houses from every region as the stage set, and the festival mixes folk ensembles (Sukhishvili and Nino Katamadze headlined in 2026) with contemporary bands, craft workshops and very good food. It is one of the few Georgian festivals that works equally well for locals and visitors.
September and October: the harvest
This is the peak. Tbilisi's 1991-2020 normals are 26°C in September and 20°C in October by day, the light turns gold, and the whole country is either picking grapes or drinking the result. Our autumn guide covers the weather and road closures month by month.
Rtveli, the wine harvest
Rtveli is a season, not a date. From the first days of September to the middle of October, families across Kakheti, and to a lesser extent Kartli, Imereti and Racha, pick their grapes, and in Georgia that is not something you watch from behind a fence. Turn up at almost any family winery during rtveli and you will be handed a basket. After the picking comes the pressing, traditionally by foot in a satsnakheli (a hollowed log), then the chacha, then the songs, then somebody declares a supra. Six hours later you are swearing eternal friendship with people you met that morning.
The organised harvest festivals are fun but staged. The Gurjaani Wine Festival (10 October 2026) is a good one-day stop if you are in Kakheti that weekend, and the Tsinandali Festival (3-13 September 2026) puts international orchestras in the estate amphitheatre if classical music is your thing. The real experience is at a family vineyard: ask your guesthouse host, hire a driver for the day, or drive the back roads between Telavi and Kvareli in early October and follow the smell of fermenting grapes.
Alaverdoba is the church feast at Alaverdi Cathedral, the tallest in Kakheti, held around 27 September and running on for days with pilgrims, wine and a livestock market outside the walls. Shatiloba in Khevsureti falls on the first or second weekend of September: horse races, chidaoba wrestling, Khevsur beer and folk singing inside the tower village of Shatili. You may be the only foreigners there. The Tushetian Guda Cheese Festival (11 October 2026) in Kvemo Alvani marks the flocks' return from the mountains.
Tbilisoba, the city's birthday
Tbilisoba is the one festival we tell every visitor to catch if the dates line up. It is normally held on the first weekend of October (5-6 October in 2024, 1-2 October in 2022) and turns Rike Park, Orbeliani Square, Abanotubani and the old town streets into a two-day fair: regional food stalls, wine from every district, an open-air cinema, craft markets, children's shows, then evening concerts with the country's biggest names. It is free.
Two things to know. First, the dates move. In 2025 City Hall pulled it forward to 20-21 September because local elections fell on 4 October. When we checked on 3 September 2026 the 2026 dates had not been announced; expect the first weekend of October and confirm on City Hall's channels a few weeks out. Second, it is crowded. Old Town hotels book out well ahead of the weekend and prices climb, so reserve early or stay in Vera or Vake and walk in. Our Georgia in October guide plans the whole month around it.
Svetitskhovloba (Mtskhetoba) on 14 October is a public holiday and a pilgrimage day at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta; go early, because the road from Tbilisi jams by mid-morning. The Tbilisi EthnoFest (mid-October, dates confirmed late) brings folk ensembles to the capital's stages.
November and December: winding down
The calendar goes quiet in November and then builds towards the biggest night of the year.
| Event | Date | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Feast of the 100,000 Martyrs | 13 November | Commemorated at Metekhi and along the Mtkvari in Tbilisi, where the martyrs of 1226 are said to have died. |
| Tbilisi Book Days | 13-15 November 2026 | Book fair with readings and a strong English-language corner. |
| Mandarinoba | 21 November 2026 | Tsikhisdziri, near Batumi. Mandarin harvest festival on the Adjara coast. |
| Giorgoba | 23 November | Public holiday for St George, the country's patron saint. Church services, and every Giorgi you know has a name day. |
| Tbilisi International Film Festival | Late November or early December | Georgian and international cinema at the Amirani cinema. The 2025 edition ran 1-7 December; 2026 dates not announced when we checked. |
| Amerimeri Natural Wine Festival | 5 December 2026 | Tskaltubo, near Kutaisi. Small natural-wine fair in a spa town. |
| Tbilisi Christmas Village | 12 December to 14 January | Market stalls, lights and mulled wine in the centre; the city keeps its decorations up until Old New Year. |
| New Year's Eve | 31 December | The biggest night of the year. Fireworks from every balcony from 11pm until well past 2am, family tables until dawn. |
New Year is Georgia's Christmas: the main gift-giving night, the biggest table and the one everybody waits for. Every household prepares satsivi (turkey or chicken in walnut sauce), gozinaki (honey-and-walnut brittle), churchkhela, roast pork and enough wine to float a boat. The chichilaki, a curled shaving of hazelnut wood that serves as the traditional Georgian Christmas tree, appears in homes and shop windows. Tbilisi's fireworks are enormous and entirely unregulated, launched from rooftops, courtyards and the middle of the street. Beautiful and slightly alarming.
Public holidays in 2026
Georgia has 18 official public holidays, counting the four Easter days. The 18th, Family Sanctity Day on 17 May, was added to the Labour Code in 2024. Banks and government offices close on all of them; restaurants, shops and sights mostly stay open, sometimes with shorter hours. Holidays that fall on a weekend are not moved.
| Date | Holiday | Effect on travellers |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 January | New Year and Bedoba | Nearly everything closed on the 1st. Stock up on the 31st. |
| 7 January | Orthodox Christmas | Most things closed. Alilo procession from 2pm in Tbilisi. |
| 19 January | Natlisgheba (Epiphany) | Banks closed. Little other impact. |
| 3 March | Mother's Day | Restaurants busy. Book ahead. |
| 8 March | International Women's Day | Some businesses closed. Florists everywhere. |
| 9 April | National Unity Day | Memorial ceremonies on Rustaveli. Banks closed. |
| 10-13 April 2026 | Easter: Good Friday to Easter Monday | Significant closures, reduced transport. In 2027: 30 April to 3 May. |
| 9 May | Victory Day | Minor. Ceremonies at war memorials. |
| 12 May | St Andrew's Day | Church services. No tourist impact. |
| 17 May | Family Sanctity Day | Processions in central Tbilisi; banks closed. |
| 26 May | Independence Day | Ceremonies, concerts, fireworks. A good day to be in Tbilisi. |
| 28 August | Mariamoba (Dormition) | Churches busy. Otherwise normal. |
| 14 October | Svetitskhovloba (Mtskhetoba) | Pilgrimage to Mtskheta; the road from Tbilisi is slow all morning. |
| 23 November | Giorgoba (St George's Day) | Banks closed. Minor impact. |
Planning around a festival
- Book stays early for October. Tbilisi hotels fill for Tbilisoba weekend and Kakheti guesthouses fill through rtveli. Two to four weeks ahead is the minimum; for a specific Sighnaghi or Telavi guesthouse, more.
- Check dates late. Only the church calendar and the public holidays are fixed. Everything else is confirmed two to six weeks out on the organiser's Facebook page, on tkt.ge for ticketed events, or in City Hall's news for Tbilisoba.
- Arrange transport for the mountain feasts. Tushetoba, Shatiloba and Lamproba are at the end of long, rough roads with little or no public transport. Rent a car with the right clearance, hire a driver, or join a jeep share from Telavi or Alvani for Tusheti.
- Pace yourself. Georgian festivals involve wine, and the people around you have been in training all their lives. Eat first, alternate with water, and remember that a polite refusal is always acceptable, whatever the tamada says.
What a Georgian festival is like
If your reference point is a festival in Western Europe, reset it. Georgian festivals are unstructured: there is rarely a printed programme, the horse race starts when the horses are ready, and the concert begins when the musicians have finished eating. They are built around food: gozinaki at New Year, red eggs at Easter, churchkhela in the harvest season, and you will not go hungry at any of them. They are musical: polyphonic singing, on UNESCO's intangible heritage list, breaks out at every serious gathering, and at some point a group of men will lock arms and produce harmonies that make you wonder what you have been listening to all your life.
Above all they are inclusive. You are not a spectator. Someone will hand you a glass, someone else will insist you try their churchkhela, a third will teach you a dance step. Say yes to most of it. When you need to stop, "madloba, ara" (thanks, no) with a hand on your heart is always accepted.
The moment you will wish you had a few words is the supra, when the tamada raises a glass and everyone at the table is expected to answer. Our phrase guide covers the basics; if you want to arrive able to follow the toasts and say one of your own, EasyGeorgian's guide to Georgian toasts explains the order they come in, what each one means and how to reply, which is exactly what a first festival supra demands of a guest.
Frequently asked questions
Are Georgian festivals free?
When is Tbilisoba 2026?
When is Orthodox Easter in Georgia?
Are the festivals safe?
Can I join a supra without an invitation?
What should I wear?
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