Tbilisi's main avenue turns into snowy playground (VIDEO)
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Snow in Tbilisi at the end of May seems almost unimaginable but visitors planning to come to tomorrow’s Independence Day celebration will be able to enjoy the festive event surrounded by snow.
Artificial snow machines are being temporarily installed on Rustaveli Ave in central Tbilisi ahead of the nationwide May 26 Independence Day annual celebration.
All day tomorrow children and snow enthusiasts will be able to play in the snow in a special enclosed area on Rustaveli Ave.
Watch the video from today’s preparations on Rustaveli Ave below:
Temperatures are expected to reach 26C tomorrow but officials guaranteed there would be snow for the Independence Day celebration in Tbilisi.
Once the celebration has ended, the artificial snow machines will be transported to Georgia’s two leading ski resorts – Gudauri and Bakuriani – to make the winter season there longer and more fruitful.
"This is a brand new snow gun from our partner company TechnoAlpin, which has not been tested in any city yet and we decided to present it on May 26,” said the director of Georgia’s Mountain Resorts Development Company Aleksandre Onoprishvili.
He noted TechnoAlpin had funded the cost of transporting the new snow machines to Tbilisi, as tomorrow’s Independence Day celebration was a great advertising space for the company.
The idea to bring artificial snow machines to Georgia began last year as a way to extend the season and ensure Georgia’s winter resorts had decent snow cover regardless of natural snow conditions.
Already the artificial snow machines have had a transformative impact on the two winter resorts.
Onoprishvili said the new snowmaking equipment enabled the Georgian Mountain Resorts Development Company to offer more reliable ski seasons at Gudauri and Bakuriani, regardless of natural snow cover, which in turn had attracted more tourists.
By the end of this year, there were plans to add additional snow machines on ski tracks in both resorts.
"This year we are finishing the second phase of the Gudauri and Bakuriani development. Two water reservoirs will be built to provide the snow guns with enough water to make the snow,” Onoprishvili said.
"We have already started ground works too so that by December the resorts will be ready to receive higher numbers of visitors,” he said.
Georgia’s winter resorts are extending their ski season through to mid-spring, delighting skiers and snowboarders alike.
Georgia’s efforts to make the country’s ski resorts Gudauri and Bakuriani popular tourist spots appears to be paying off – the number of visitors to the two winter wonderlands is at an all-time high.
Georgia is preparing for the possibility of a warm winter and will have artificial snowmakers operating at the country’s two main winter resorts for the first time.
Today is a big day in Georgia. The country is proudly and boisterously celebrating the 97th anniversary of the day it declared its national independence.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili is congratulating Georgians on the country’s 97th anniversary of its independence.
Georgia’s Mountain Resorts Development Agency, acting under Georgia’s Ministry of Economy, has signed a deal with France’s Alpinism and Mountain-Skiing Sport National School (ENSA, Ecole Nationale de Ski et d’Alpinisme), a unique facility in the country with extensive experience in researching mountain conditions and characteristics.
Georgia has already started preparations for the 2019 ski season, installing artificial snow making systems in the country’s leading winter resort of Gudauri.