17 May, 2012
On May 12-13, 2012, on Shardeni Street, organization “Tbili-isi”, together with the Tbilisi City Hall, organized the open-sky event “Chocolate and Poetry Festival”.
The slogan of the event was “Idea for Social Integration”. The main banner also read: “Let us sweeten two days of May”. Most probably, this goal was achieved. Shardeni Street and its surroundings abounded with the people of all generations. This is one more proof that chocolate is loved and appreciated by everybody everywhere. This was the
The presentation of books and booklets took place. The collections of poetry and prose of 10 young authors were for sale. They were: Davit Kashiashvili, Giorgi Liparishvili, Zura Papiashvili, Ketevan Sikharulidze, Salome Bregvadze, Mariam Merkviladze, Tika Mezvrishvili, Alexandre Lortkipanidze, Ilia Kiladze and Ano Zaalishvili. It is also scheduled to publish the booklets filled with hand-written verses by the ethnic minorities, as well as those with the manuscripts of homeless kids and prisoners.
“It was the initiative of Tbili-isi group. It is common for Europe to hold chocolate festivals. However, Tbilisi hosts such an event for the first time. It means the popularization of the chocolate brands – local and foreign ones. We think that chocolate which is associated with sweetness, pleasure and joy, will by all means warrant the positive disposition of our citizens. There are many tourists in Tbilisi and such festivals are interesting for them too. For all these reasons, Tbilisi City Hall has accepted the offer to support this occasion. We have financed the festival parallel to which poetry soiree is being held. We have released collections of poems of 10 young talented poets, who have been printed for the first time. There are so many people today - children and elderly, and they all have happy faces. I don’t rule out that, like wine and flower festivals, chocolate festival will becomes traditional as well,” Mamuka Katsarava, Head of City Department of Social Service and Culture of Tbilisi City Hall told Georgian Journal.
The specially organized stage was livened and the guests had an opportunity to taste nice candy and listen to nice poetry at the same time. Mari Merkviladze, one of the authors commented: “Organizers in charge had some general information about our creativity and decided to print our compilations. The aim of the project was to reveal the completely unknown names like ours’. They gave us a gift as a promotion to our labor and our works. There was not a concrete topic, each of us have our own themes. I personally write about the psychological problems that teenagers face in transitional age.”
Salome Sulaberidze, President of the organization Tbili-isi noted: “This occasion has no analogue in terms of its concept – chocolate and poetry festival together. Such a cocktail, I guess, and if I don’t sound too bold, is being held for the first time in the world. Today, the degustation of forty species of chocolates from 21 companies took place along with the presentation of books of debutant authors.”
The greatest amount of people was around the foreign Belgian brand. It is probably clear, as Belgium is famous for its chocolate, and it was a nice opportunity to taste one. Tamar Vezirishvili, Sales manager of the Belgian company Rosali Sambar told Georgian Journal: “Our company entered the Georgian market ten years ago. It produces the premium class chocolate. Today we present around 15 facets of chocolate.”
Dali Papinashivili was one of those guests who chose to visit the festival with a large family. “We are very happy. Only one problem was that the place was too overcrowded and we could not approach everything we liked to. We wish very much if it becomes annual. Children will be very happy and not only they. We, adults, also took a great pleasure,” she shared her personal impressions.
GEL
