Bassiani’s come down: The rise and fall of White Noise and Tbilisi’s #raveolution

For two days in May the dilated pupils of clubbers around the world were turned towards Tbilisi. There, on the square in front of Georgia’s Stalin-era parliament building, the crucible for social change in the country for generations, something extraordinary was taking place. Some ten thousand young (and not-so-young) revellers had shut down the centre of the city with an impromptu dance-demonstration, a #raveolution, as the hashtag went, in protest against Georgia’s absurdly draconian drug laws and a midnight raid that saw hundreds of gun-toting riot cops descend on two of the city’s most popular clubs. For a moment, it looked as if sweeping changes were about to come this tiny, conservative country in the Caucasus.