Strategic Events · 2026

A year in Georgia,
month by month.

Harvests, festivals and trade weeks are the spine of Georgian travel. Build around them and a journey gains a reason; miss them and it is just a route. Every event below carries the experiences designed on it.

April

10 – 13 April 2026 · Churches and family tables nationwide

Orthodox Easter in Georgia

Easter is the deepest moment in the Georgian year. The midnight liturgy fills every church from Svetitskhoveli to village chapels, candlelight processions circle the walls, and the following days are given to family tables laden with red-dyed eggs, paska bread and the first toasts of spring. For visitors, it is the rare festival that is entirely unperformed — the country simply living its faith.

A powerful shoulder-season anchor in April, drawing culturally motivated travellers before the summer peak and pairing naturally with early-season wine and heritage programmes.

Living Heritage Georgia

May

9 May 2026 · Mtatsminda Park, Tbilisi

New Wine Festival

Each May, hundreds of winemakers carry the new vintage up to Mtatsminda Park above Tbilisi for its first public pouring. Qvevri wines opened only weeks earlier stand beside established cellars, and a single afternoon offers a tasting map of the entire country — large marani and one-family producers alike, with the city spread out below.

The single most efficient scouting event for the new Georgian vintage, ideal for combining consumer programmes with early trade reconnaissance.

Natural Wine Georgia Insider New Georgian Wine Discovery Weekend

7 May 2026 · Tbilisi

Zero Compromise Natural Wine Fair

Zero Compromise is the growers' own fair: a one-day gathering of Georgia's natural winemakers, organised by the producers themselves, where every bottle poured is low-intervention and every pour is made by the person who grew the grapes. Importers, sommeliers and writers from across the world treat it as the fixed point of the Georgian natural wine calendar.

Essential trade access to the natural wine segment, with the producers, buyers and press of the category gathered in one room on one day.

Natural Wine Georgia Insider

June

19 – 21 June 2026 · Lisi Wonderland, Tbilisi

Tbilisi Open Air

The largest open-air music festival in the Caucasus spreads across the hills above Lisi Lake for three days each June, mixing international headliners with the strongest acts of the Georgian and regional scene. Multiple stages run from afternoon into the small hours, with the festival's easy-going crowd and hillside setting giving it a character closer to a gathering than an event.

A proven demand anchor for younger international audiences in early summer, extending naturally into city and wine-country add-ons.

Tbilisi Open Air Weekender

12 – 14 June 2026 · Expo Georgia, Tbilisi

WinExpo Georgia

Georgia's international wine trade fair brings the national industry — large houses, family marani, equipment suppliers and the institutions behind the sector — into the halls of Expo Georgia for three days of tastings, masterclasses and contract conversations. It is the fixed annual meeting point between Georgian producers and the importers, distributors and buyers working the category worldwide.

The cornerstone of Georgian wine trade access; missions built around the fair compress months of producer outreach into a single structured week.

Georgia Wine Trade Mission — WinExpo

July

10 – 19 July 2026 · Open Air Museum of Ethnography, Tbilisi

Art-Gene Festival

For ten days each July, the Open Air Museum of Ethnography above Tbilisi fills with the living folk culture of every Georgian region: polyphonic ensembles, instrument makers, craftspeople at work and regional kitchens cooking through the evening. Art-Gene was founded to keep village traditions in circulation, and the museum's historic houses give the music its proper setting.

The most concentrated annual showcase of Georgian folk culture, ideal as the centrepiece of summer heritage itineraries.

Living Heritage Georgia

23 – 26 July 2026 · Batumi

Black Sea Jazz Festival

Batumi's jazz festival has spent two decades drawing serious international names to the Black Sea coast in high summer. Headline concerts run in the evening warmth with late-night jams following in the clubs, and the festival's seafront setting — palms, promenade, the sea a street away — gives it an atmosphere no inland event can match.

A high-summer demand driver for the Adjara coast, pairing music audiences with seaside and gastronomic programming.

Black Sea Jazz & Batumi Experience

August

14 – 16 August 2026 · Stepantsminda, Kazbegi

Kazbegi Alpine Trail Weekend

A weekend of mountain running and walking beneath Mount Kazbek, with marked routes from accessible valley loops to a high alpine course past the Gergeti Trinity church. The event draws an international field of trail runners alongside hikers who come for the supported routes, shared meals and the straightforward camaraderie of a small mountain-town festival.

A focused August anchor for the active-travel segment, filling Kazbegi capacity at peak alpine season with high-value international participants.

Run the Caucasus

September

3 – 13 September 2026 · Tsinandali Estate, Kakheti

Tsinandali Festival

For ten days each September, the amphitheatre at the Tsinandali Estate hosts one of the region's most ambitious classical festivals: international soloists and conductors alongside the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra, which gathers young musicians from across a complicated neighbourhood to play in one ensemble. Concerts begin as the light fades over the Alazani valley, with the estate's gardens and historic cellar a few steps away.

The premier premium-segment anchor in the Georgian calendar, aligning world-class music with wine country at the exact peak of harvest season.

Tsinandali Classical & Wine Country

Late September – mid October · Family marani across Kakheti

Rtveli — The Vintage

Rtveli is Georgia's harvest — less an event than a season, when every family marani in Kakheti picks, presses and fills its qvevri, and the work ends each day at a table. Guests join properly: cutting Rkatsiteli and Saperavi in the morning rows, treading grapes, sealing the vessels, and taking their place at the harvest supra as the household's own.

The defining Georgian wine-travel season and the strongest repeat-visit driver in the portfolio, with demand reliably exceeding family-marani capacity.

Rtveli Harvest Community Week

October

3 – 4 October 2026 · Old Town and Rike Park, Tbilisi

Tbilisoba

Tbilisi's city festival takes over the old town on the first weekend of October: open-air kitchens and regional food stalls along the river, new wine from the just-finished harvest, concerts in the squares and churchkhela makers dipping walnuts in grape must on the street. Every Georgian region sends its produce and its musicians, making the capital, for one weekend, a map of the whole country.

A reliable city-break anchor that bridges the harvest season into autumn, ideal for closing wine-country itineraries with a capital finale.

Regional Taste of Georgia

December

12 December 2026 · Gudauri Resort

Gudauri Season Opening

Gudauri opens its lifts in mid-December, and the first weekend of the season has become an occasion in its own right: fresh early snow on high, treeless terrain, first-tracks energy across the resort, and music and long dinners in the chalets after the lifts close. Freeriders treat the opening as the start of the Caucasus winter proper.

Launches the winter revenue season and captures early-booking freeride demand ahead of the European holiday peak.

Gudauri Freeride & Mountain Culture Week
Forward planning

Building 2026 departures?

Trade partners receive the calendar with confirmed dates, allotments and net rates each November — a season ahead of the public.

Apply for trade access