The best clubs in Tbilisi, from Bassiani to Mtkvarze

How Tbilisi built a club scene.

Bassiani opened in 2014, run by Zviad Gelbakhiani, Tato Getia and Naja Orashvili, and named after a medieval battle fought at Basian. Its main room is a former 50-metre Olympic swimming pool beneath the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, the national stadium, so a football crowd can be above the dancefloor while a club night runs below. Photography is forbidden inside. Horoom is the club's monthly LGBTQ+ night.

Bassiani was not the first. Mtkvarze, which opened before Bassiani in an abandoned Soviet-era fish restaurant, was started by Davit Chikhladze and Keta Gabunia without an investor. Café Gallery, a café by day on Rustaveli Avenue that turns into a club at night, is one of the city's longest-running party venues, and its opening year is reported differently in each place, so it is left out here.

KHIDI followed in 2016 beneath Vakhushti Bagrationi Bridge, with two stages, KHIDI and G2. Its name is the Georgian word for bridge.

Boiler Room filmed at Bassiani in 2018 and at KHIDI in 2019 and 2022. Those recordings are the quickest way to hear what the rooms sound like, and the listening section below uses them.

The 2018 raid and the club strike.

In the early hours of 12 May 2018, according to Mixmag, police raided Bassiani and Café Gallery. Arrest figures were disputed and are left out here. The raids came after a run of drug deaths in the preceding weeks, none of them at the clubs, and protests followed under the slogan We Dance Together, We Fight Together. Georgia's interior minister apologised to protesters within days. Café Gallery reopened on 22 May and Bassiani on 23 May, and on 27 May Boiler Room broadcast a night from Bassiani under the protest's own slogan.

Separately, on 30 July 2018 Georgia's Constitutional Court abolished penalties for cannabis consumption. That ruling followed a lawsuit from an opposition party, so it should not be read as a direct result of the raid.

In winter 2024 the clubs closed themselves. After the government announced on 28 November that it was suspending its EU accession talks, Bassiani, Left Bank, KHIDI and TES closed in protest, and the clubs spent most of December closed. KHIDI opened a crowdfunding appeal on 9 December, and a New York club night, BASEMENT, raised more than $10,000 for Bassiani. KHIDI reopened for one night on 20 December and TES the next day, and New Year's Eve parties followed. On 26 May 2025, Independence Day, more than 70 venues, labels and collectives marched through the city, among them Bassiani, KHIDI, Mtkvarze, TES and Left Bank. Their statement said that art and culture must become symbols of resistance and disobedience in every liberation struggle.

TES, a former Soviet thermal power station on Dodo Abashidze Street, closed on 31 January 2026 after its premises were sold, with a hint from its team of another reincarnation to come. KHIDI also fought an earlier shutdown: it held a party in December 2021 in protest at clubs being left out of the reopening that month, and was raided and ordered shut days later, according to Resident Advisor.

The best clubs in Tbilisi now.

Five rooms make up the list of the best clubs in Tbilisi at the moment, and each runs on a programme of nights rather than a fixed schedule, so the venue's own listing is what to check before going.

KHIDI had events listed through September 2026, including a G2 night on 26 September. Mtkvarze had events listed for early September 2026 and has launched a new series, The Saturnalia, focused on Georgian queer history. Left Bank listed Friday clubnights through February 2026. Bassiani marked 12 years with an anniversary event on 10 July 2026. Café Gallery was reported open in 2026, but its own schedule could not be confirmed for this guide, so check before you go.

Tbilisi techno: what to listen to.

The sets below were all filmed in Tbilisi by Boiler Room and come from this site's catalogue of recorded DJ sets. They cover several sounds, from the Bassiani night of 2018 to a KHIDI bill that ran from techno to hardcore.

The Boiler Room that went out under the protest slogan on 27 May 2018 had Zurkin, Gio Shengelia, Greenbeam and Leon, Bero, and Kancheli and Zitto on the bill. Zurkin's set from Bassiani is the recording to start with.

The first Boiler Room at KHIDI was on 1 March 2019. Shlømo's set from that night is the one to hear.

KHIDI returned to Boiler Room on 15 July 2022 with a bill that ran from electro and industrial to hardcore. Three of its sets are worth hearing for the contrast: Nkisi's hardcore and gabber, Vulkanski's techno and industrial, and Pablo Bozzi's electro, italo and EBM.

Getting in and what to expect.

Clubs here keep late hours, and the main nights are Friday and Saturday. KHIDI and Mtkvarze both run on weekends, and Left Bank adds live music on Thursday and Sunday. Entry prices are reported differently by different sources and change with the night, so the venue's own event page is the number to trust. Bassiani forbids photography inside. Check each club's listing before you go: a closure or a relocation can happen quickly, as TES's sale and the 2024 strike showed.