{"id":104781,"date":"2025-02-23T07:23:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T07:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/as-tbilisis-famed-nightclubs-reawaken-a-murky-future-awaits\/"},"modified":"2025-02-23T07:23:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T07:23:23","slug":"as-tbilisis-famed-nightclubs-reawaken-a-murky-future-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781","title":{"rendered":"As Tbilisi\u2019s famed nightclubs reawaken, a murky future awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tcocdn.com\/tco\/images\/Huck\/Huck_Illo_Tblisi_Techno_Banner_250114.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The underground scene has long been a prime target for Georgian Dream, which directed armed riot police to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/inside-georgias-rave-revolution-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raid Bassiani<\/a> and the city\u2019s oldest techno club, Cafe Gallery, in 2018. At the direction of secretive oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili \u2013 whose personal wealth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/bidzina-ivanishvili-georgia-election-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">equals a quarter<\/a> of Georgia\u2019s GDP \u2013 the party has warmed relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while turning its back on the EU and taking an increasingly socially conservative turn. In recent years, Georgian Dream has adopted Russian-style laws cracking down on foreign-funded NGOs and the LBGTQ+ community, sparking fierce street protests.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Yet the stakes feel more existential in the current round of demonstrations, which began a month after a parliamentary election that was marred by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/world-news\/2024\/10\/27\/georgia-election-stolen-by-putins-puppet-government\/\">allegations<\/a> of widespread fraud. Police have arrested <a href=\"https:\/\/jam-news.net\/ngo-report-january-11-12-protests-in-tbilisi-and-batumi-result-in-30-arrests\/\">over 500 protesters<\/a>, particularly targeting opposition leaders and independent journalists, with many facing brutal abuse in detention. Bands of government-aligned criminals known as \u201ctitushki\u201d roam the streets committing unprovoked acts of violence against those same groups.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cEveryone is scared, but no one is hopeless,\u201d said Gedevanishvili, adding that he sees the dance floor as an \u201ceducational place\u201d, where he can take dancers on a journey that begins with the sadness of the past few months and ends with a feeling of collective relief.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Gedevanishvili now lives in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/the-rogue-runners-taking-on-new-york-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York<\/a>, but he flew back to Tbilisi to play Bassiani\u2019s New Year\u2019s party. On December 21, he helped rally the Georgian diaspora for a fundraiser at Queens-based venue H0l0, while New York techno mainstay BASEMENT also raised over $10,000 for Bassiani in a crowdfunding campaign. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Despite these displays of solidarity overseas, the public fundraisers and some support from the Georgian underground music community, the strike took a severe toll on the clubs, whose international acclaim belies a precarious financial situation. \u201cDeciding to go on strike wasn\u2019t easy, but it felt necessary,\u201d said Gacha Bakradze, co-owner of Left Bank. \u201cEven missing a single week of operation has a significant impact, and we were closed for six weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Located in a crumbling former industrial park next to Tbilisi\u2019s central Mtkvari River, Left Bank defines itself as both a club and a \u201ccommunity space\u201d, complete with a cozy brick record shop, ping-pong table, and outdoor dance floor in the shadow of a giant, decidedly non-native cactus. When it went on strike, it not only cancelled DJ nights but film screenings, lecture series, and even a nascent, free-to-enroll art school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The underground scene has long been a prime target for Georgian Dream, which directed armed riot police to raid Bassiani and the city\u2019s oldest techno club, Cafe Gallery, in 2018. At the direction of secretive oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili \u2013 whose personal wealth equals a quarter of Georgia\u2019s GDP \u2013 the party has warmed relations with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[48075,2222,18151,6810,29270,31890,4438,2481,48074,48078,18054,577,5770,30590,48077,32910,29832,18484,23398,48076,1003],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-104781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-accession","tag-anxiety","tag-awaits","tag-capital","tag-continued","tag-famed","tag-finding","tag-future","tag-georgias","tag-murky","tag-nightclubs","tag-party","tag-plans","tag-protests","tag-reawaken","tag-reopening","tag-reported","tag-ruling","tag-suspended","tag-tbilisis","tag-years"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>As Tbilisi\u2019s famed nightclubs reawaken, a murky future awaits - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Tbilisi\u2019s famed nightclubs reawaken, a murky future awaits - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The underground scene has long been a prime target for Georgian Dream, which directed armed riot police to raid Bassiani and the city\u2019s oldest techno club, Cafe Gallery, in 2018. At the direction of secretive oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili \u2013 whose personal wealth equals a quarter of Georgia\u2019s GDP \u2013 the party has warmed relations with [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-23T07:23:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Huck_Illo_Tblisi_Techno_Banner_250114.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"As Tbilisi\u2019s famed nightclubs reawaken, a murky future awaits\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-23T07:23:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781\"},\"wordCount\":413,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Huck_Illo_Tblisi_Techno_Banner_250114.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"accession\",\"Anxiety\",\"Awaits\",\"Capital\",\"Continued\",\"Famed\",\"Finding\",\"Future\",\"georgia\u2019s\",\"murky\",\"nightclubs\",\"Party\",\"Plans\",\"Protests\",\"reawaken\",\"reopening\",\"Reported\",\"ruling\",\"Suspended\",\"Tbilisis\",\"Years\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Activist\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=104781\",\"name\":\"As Tbilisi\u2019s famed nightclubs reawaken, a murky future awaits - 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