Celebration at Gomi Mountain Peak: Dancing above Clouds, Escaping Dancefloors
In the heart of Georgia, nestled at 2,700 meters above sea level in the picturesque region of Guria, the first edition of Gomi Mountain Fest took place. Organized by the group called "Gomi Mountain Fest Organizers," this event marked the country's first attempt at ritualized raving in the sky.
The lineup of this unique festival reflected the diversity of Georgia's electronic underground. DJs such as Whino B2B Nikkol, VFY (Vision From Yesterday), JSHKY, Ottonian B2B Neon Warrior, Generali Minerali, Skyra, Hamatsuki, and VFY (Erekle Tabukashvili) graced the stage, each bringing their own distinct sound to the mountainous amphitheater.
VFY closed the festival, anchoring the night in decades of underground credibility. Hamatsuki, a resident of Bassiani's queer Horoom nights, brought a politically charged atmosphere to the festival, while Generali Minerali and Skyra demonstrated how local producers are claiming space on the international circuit. Ottonian B2B Neon Warrior's set was inspired by Detroit- and Birmingham-inspired techno, recalling electronic music's origins as a form of resistance.
The challenge for Gomi Mountain Fest is to refine the festival while preserving its intimacy, earning without enclosing, and growing while staying porous to local communities. To achieve this, the festival could focus on a more sustainable model for funding, such as transport, camping rentals, food, and curated experiences. The revenue potential lies in experience-transfers, guided hikes, local gastronomy, art installations—rather than exclusivity.
Gomi Mountain Fest must prioritize sustainability by investing in waste management, eco-friendly infrastructure, and community integration to prevent environmental impact. By doing so, it could become a defining ritual of Georgian summers, symbolizing music, geography, and society fusing above the clouds.
The daytime atmosphere could host ambient, experimental sound art, and contemporary academic music to attract new audiences. Future editions could experiment with dialogues between electronic music and local Gurian traditions, rather than just folklore tourism. This would symbolically rebalance the geography of Georgian club culture by taking place "above the clouds."
The event was described as "two days above the clouds, in another reality." Gomi Mountain Fest follows a trajectory seen in other festivals like Iceland's Secret Solstice or Morocco's Oasis Festival, where remote landscapes are recast as temporary capitals of global youth culture. With its unique mountain identity, the first edition of Gomi Mountain Fest demonstrated the potential to rival European rural festivals like Boom or Ozora.
However, charging for entry and fencing off the mountaintop could risk alienating local communities whose ancestral relationship with Gomis Mta is cultural as well as scenic. The festival reactivated ancient mountain symbolism in electronic form, expanding the coordinates of Georgian rave from basements to sky, and pointing towards a new horizon: rave as communion with landscape.
