Two weeks ago saw Tbilisi Jam! Fest 2015 held close to Lisi Lake. Featuring metal bands from the U.S., Europe, and Israel, the event also saw another instalment of the Wacken Open Air (W.O.A) Metal Battle Caucasus in which groups from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia competed to represent the region in the German music festival.
Despite having visited Georgia since 1999 I never did the tourist thing until my Mum visited from England in 2012. The next time was in September this year when two old friends from the UK came. Unfortunately, Jon and June didn’t have enough time to travel to Svaneti and Tusheti so they were limited to Tbilisi and nearby, but nonetheless enjoyed themselves.
A bit late, but some photographs from last month’s protest demonstration organised by Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement in Tbilisi, Georgia. As usual, Democracy & Freedom Watch filed a report.
Although I missed much of Tbilisoba when it was held last year, I finally managed to visit it on both days this time round. Despite the weather on the second day, I enjoyed it and even managed to record a little sound.
The BBC’s Azerbaijan Service has just published my video report on the Free Thought Tea House in Tbilisi, Georgia. The piece is in Azerbaijani, but below is a brief description in English. I’ve covered Tbilisi’s tea houses serving as a meeting space for the whole region, before but this new venture takes things to whole other level.
Now I’ve finished some outstanding work I can finally post some of the material I’ve shot over the past a month and a half. First up, Yezidis in Georgia protesting the latest onslaught and wave of atrocities in Iraq by the Islamic State in two separate demonstrations held in Tbilisi in the first and second week of August.
Last Friday wasn’t just my birthday, but also the day I ventured out into the regions of Georgia with the Sayat Nova Project, a Kickstarter-funded initiative to record the minority musical dialects of the Caucasus. I’ve already posted quite a few entries on the project as it documented ethnic Armenian, Azeri, and Avar traditional music last year.
As Georgia prepares to sign its Association Agreement with the EU, civil society in the former Soviet republic held its own event supporting and confirming the country’s European aspirations. Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso has just published my piece on the event as well as two others that, coincidentally or not, occurred just hours earlier and which also identified some of the obstacles that still need to be overcome.
Yesterday saw another action in Tbilisi’s Vake Park, but this time to mark Stray Animals Day. Although officially marked on 4 April, actions at the Guerrilla Gardening Tbilisi Camp usually take place on Saturdays or Sundays, hence this event being held on the 5th.