Charities to Benefit as Tbilisi Burns Supper Reaches Historic 10th Year

Now a firmly established highlight on Tbilisi’s social calendar, the Tbilisi Gala Benefit Burns Supper and Ball is to be staged for an historic 10th year at the Funicular Ballroom on February 2.

Three charitable causes – Temi Community (caring for a wide range of vulnerable people), Catharsis (helping the homeless elderly by providing hot meals) and Dog Organization Georgia (providing shelter for stray animals along with sterilization, vaccination and adoption programs) - will share the proceeds from an event brimming with culture, and which last year raised over 40,000 GEL.

All across the world, from Melbourne to Montreal, Burns Suppers are held on or around January 25, as it was on this day that Scotland’s most famous poet Robert Burns was born in 1759. In Tbilisi, this year's event will take place on February 2. The Tbilisi version was first initiated by Fiona Coxshall in 2010, and she devotedly organized eight unforgettable editions before leaving Georgia. A committee of various nationalities maintained the tradition last year, staging the ninth edition, and this year we reach the 10-year milestone. 

A long and memorable night of delicious food, drink, and lively dancing will be relished by hundreds of guests to celebrate the life and works of Burns whose poems and songs have been revered all over the world for centuries.

The evening is punctuated by a handful of traditional toasts, among them the Address to a Haggis, which entails the recital of a poem that Burns dedicated to the (in)famous Scottish delicacy. Various accomplished speakers have been carefully hand-picked to ensure that, despite being a few thousand miles from Burns’ native Scotland, there will be an authentic flavor to the evening.

Taking on the role of Master of Ceremonies for a second time is William Dunbar, who quite fittingly shares his name with a renowned Scottish makar poet of the late 15th / early 16th century.

This will be the fifth year in a row that Tbilisi’s Burns Supper, of which the main sponsors are AmCham Georgia and PMCG, is being held at the Funicular Ballroom, where head chef Jorge de Silva has again dreamt up a sumptuous gourmet four-course meal to be complemented by sensible quantities of Georgian wine and Scottish single malt whisky.

Once suitably nourished, guests are summoned to the dance floor by Nicol McLaren and the Glencraig Band for some Scottish country dancing. Nicol’s band, which also includes Isobelle Hodgson on piano and Maggie Adamson on the fiddle, fly in all the way from Scotland every year especially for the event.

In between the Military Two-Step, Dashing White Sergeant and other wonderfully-named Scottish dances, there will be a live auction (including an album signed and donated specifically for the event by Nina Ananiashvili, Artistic Director of the State Ballet of Georgia and paintings by Maka Gotsiridze and Levan Mosiashvili) and a grand-prize raffle (including generous prizes donated by Sheraton Grand Tbilisi Metechi Palace, Marriott Hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel Batumi, and Hotels & Preference Hualing Tbilisi).

Some disco dancing concludes the event, which always runs into “the wee hours” of the morning.

*A LIMITED NUMBER OF TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE. Email: burnstbilisi@gmail.com

By Donnie Munro