Tbilisi hosts Georgia’s main folk music festival Art-Gene

Folk arts enthusiasts will be invited to watch artist performances, taste local cuisine and find artisanal items exhibited at the Art-Gene Festival in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

The country’s main folk music festival, which officially kicked off on June 16 in Akhmeta, in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, is moving to the Open Air Museum of Ethnography in Tbilisi, the customary home for the folklore fest.

Photo: Art-Gene

Georgian composer Dato Evgenidze will open the Tbilisi events today and will be followed by performance of other Georgian musical bands and singers

Popular artists ranging from Nino Katamadze & Insight will go on stage on July 12.

Photo: Art-Gene

Folk-rock and blues singer and composer Niaz Diasamidze will perform in Tbilisi Ethnographic Musem accompanied by his musical band 33a on July 13.

The large-scale musical event will be closed by Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet on July 14.

The festival, aimed at presentation of Georgian folklore dates back 16 years. More than 100 concerts have been conducted during the period attended by approximately 30-40 thousand people every year.