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Georgians' post-election club scene: Dancing together, fighting together

Tbilisi taz | When Lazare Grigoriadis comes to the Left Bank, the mood changes. It's Saturday evening in Tbilisi and Georgia held perhaps the most important election in its history here today. It looks bad. In the Left Bank, one of the hottest clubs in the city, the techno scene actually meets to party. That evening everyone is looking at their cell phones and watching the election results. Just a few taps to the music. In a corner someone bursts into tears and is being comforted. The governing party has 54 percent.

Grigoriadis stood directly in front of the DJ booth. He tried to distract himself by listening to the music: “I have no idea what's going to happen now,” he says, otherwise he stays very quiet that evening. But he later posted on Instagram: “Anyone who starts being nihilistic now has already lost the battle!”

Everyone here in the club knows Lazare Grigoriadis. He is constantly greeted. Many people want to shake his hand. He became famous in Georgia when he was arrested in 2023 during protests against the spy law. It is a Russian-style law that would give the government the ability to ban organizations and parties it dislikes. In 2023, the clubs will call for demonstrations against the planned law. Grigoriadis follows. There are riots. Demo participants are arrested – including Lazare Grigoriadis. Authorities accuse him of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a police car. He denies this, but is sentenced to nine years in prison. After a year, the president pardoned him. He has long black eyelashes tattooed under his eyes. Inspired by the anime “Attack on Titan”. In the series, gigantic titans attack the last remnants of humanity.

No one in the techno community had to pay as high a price as Grigoriadis

Everyone here in the Left Bank Club would probably give everything for a future in the EU. But no one in the techno community had to pay as high a price as Grigoriadis.

Eyelashes against titans

“I was very lonely,” he says of his time in Georgia prison. Inside, he doesn't hear much about how his case is inspiring other people to fight against Russian influence in the country. Graffiti with his eyes and eyelash tattoos are popping up all over the city.

Here, in Tbilisi, there is the famous saying “We dance together, we fight together”. Dancing together, fighting together. It dates back to 2018, when the techno club Bassiani was stormed by the police. The government had a strict drug policy and the attack on Bassiani led to protests by thousands of ravers.

Grigoriadis was 16 at the time and had just discovered the techno world. He still stayed out of the protests. But the environment, the conversations, politicized him – and radicalized him. “This time in the clubs changed me a lot. I learned about different perspectives. I learned a lot of other things and when I go to a demonstration I see a lot of people from the clubs there. We are all connected beyond the club, like one big family.” Dancing together, fighting together.

This saying also applies to the Left Bank. The club has only been around since 2020 and they want to do everything a little differently here. While more and more tourists dance at Bassiani, the Left Bank is a place for the Georgian community. In addition to the dance floors, there are areas where people can exchange ideas and chat.

The oligarch's strange hobby

Nika Khotcholava works at Left Bank and regularly plays as a resident DJ under the names Routes not Roots and Boioboinik: “This place should be different, special.” “We regularly organize live events here. Even have a stage for bands, for hip-hop artists from Georgia or experimental music.”

For example, there are regular film evenings. Most recently, a film about Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili's tree-collecting obsession was shown. A good friend of Putin and by far the richest person in Georgia. He is the main sponsor of the nationalist-conservative ruling party Georgian Dream and even honorary chairman. His strange hobby: bringing old and rare trees to his garden by ship. Here in the club community, everyone probably hates him.

There's not much going on in the Left Bank during the week. A few are sitting at the bar. Ping pong is being played on a concrete table tennis table outside. You can hear calm downbeat techno coming from the club. The election result shocked Nika as much as the rest of the techno scene. Everyone assumed they would win. That they can finally get away from Russia. That Georgia has a future in the EU. Now they are afraid of the future.

It was only in the summer of 2024 that the Georgian government passed a new anti-LGBT propaganda law – also based on the Russian model. Since then, gathering in public to “promote queer identity” has been banned in Georgia, among other things. In Russia, clubs are repeatedly stormed on the basis of this law.

Left Bank DJ Nika Khotcholava is also afraid of this. “That's obviously the direct connection to us.” It's just what we do here: gender propaganda!” He says it with a wink, laughs briefly, but is very serious. He doesn't believe that the government will close all clubs immediately. “Maybe first one and then the next.” Until no one dares to run a club anymore.”

Grigoriadis is also afraid of this. He is sitting at the kitchen table at home. The fridge is humming and it smells like fresh coffee. The eyelash tattoos have been joined by dark circles. Lazare is particularly worried about the future of the clubs: “Our community, our bubble, would lose its second home, and we have just lost our voice.”