Yes, Khidi is open and running in 2026. It sits on the right bank of the Mtkvari, wedged into the concrete underbelly of the Vakhushti Bagrationi Bridge, and in June 2026 it threw a three-day party for its own tenth birthday. So the club that everyone calls the one under the bridge is not a rumour and not a closed-down legend. It is a working techno venue that opens Friday and Saturday nights.
If you have already read about Bassiani and think you know what a Tbilisi club night looks like, Khidi will surprise you. It is the other big room in town, and it is not trying to be the same thing.
How Khidi is different from Bassiani
People treat the two as a rivalry. They are more like siblings who chose different careers. Bassiani lives under a Soviet football stadium, an empty swimming pool as its main floor, and its programming leans deep and hypnotic. Khidi lives under a road bridge by the river, and it plays harder.
The two swings you will notice most: sound and money. Khidi runs darker, faster, more industrial techno, and its door is easier to pass. Entry is cheaper too. Where Bassiani commonly asks 50–60 GEL, Khidi events sit closer to 20–30 GEL, with bigger international bookings pushing toward 50. If you only have one late night in you and you want the rawer, louder version, Khidi is the pick.
Our advice: do both if you have two nights, but do not do them back to back. One night in either room is enough to leave you useless the next day. Two in a row and you will lose a chunk of your trip to a hotel bed.
The sound and the rooms
Three spaces, not one. The main Khidi floor is the loud heart of it, wooden and low-ceilinged so the bass has somewhere to sit. There is a smaller room, branded G2, that runs its own line-ups and its own crowd. And in warm months there is HAERI, the open-air yard, which is where you go at 6am when your ears need a break and you want to see actual sky.
The system is the reason DJs like playing here. The tenth-anniversary weekend in June 2026 pulled in names like Ancient Methods and Boston 168 across those three stages, which tells you the booking is serious, not local-filler (Resident Advisor).
One house rule that catches tourists off guard: no photos on the dancefloor. Phones stay in pockets. This is not petty. It is what lets people dance without ending up on someone’s story, and it is a big part of why the room feels the way it does.
Face control: what actually happens at the door
Here is the honest version. Khidi has face control, but it is softer than Bassiani’s. Most people who show up for the music get in without drama. What gets you turned away is looking like you wandered over from a bar crawl: loud groups, obvious drunkenness, dressed for a wedding, no idea who is playing.
Dress plainly and dark. Come in a small group or alone rather than a stag party of eight. Know the name of at least one act on the bill. Answer the door team like a normal person. That is the whole trick, and it is not a secret code, it is just them filtering for people who came to dance.
Do not arrive at midnight expecting a room. Doors open around midnight but nothing happens for hours. The floor fills between 2 and 3am and peaks closer to 4 or 5. Turn up at 1am and you will be dancing alone wondering what the fuss is about.
Cost, hours and days
Khidi opens Friday and Saturday nights, running from around midnight to roughly 9am (Nomadic Boys). It is not a nightly club. If you are in town midweek, it is dark, and that catches a lot of visitors out.
On price, budget 20–30 GEL for a standard night, more when a headline international is booked, when it can climb toward 50. That is about 8 to 12 US dollars at the roughly 2.6 GEL to the dollar rate holding through 2026. Drinks inside are cheap by European standards. For a big booking, buying ahead through a Georgian ticket site is worth it, both to lock the lower price and to skip the queue.
Bring your passport or ID. It is a real venue with a real door, not a pop-up.
The LGBTQ angle, told straight
Inside Khidi, queer clubbers are safe and welcome. The club runs KiKi, a recurring queer night with a drag show, and states plainly that it is open to everyone regardless of who they love. On a KiKi night the room is one of the freest spaces in the country.
Outside the club is a different country, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Georgia is socially conservative, most of the population tells pollsters they do not accept homosexuality, and 2024 legislation rolled back LGBTQ rights. The dancefloor is a bubble; the street at 5am is not. We cover the wider picture in is Georgia LGBTQ-friendly, and it is worth reading before you go.
The practical takeaway: hold hands and be yourself inside the walls. Save the visible affection until you are back somewhere private, especially in the taxi and on the walk to it. That is not us telling you to hide. It is us telling you where the line of physical safety currently sits.
Getting there, and getting home at 5am
Getting there is easy. Any driver knows the Vakhushti Bagrationi Bridge, and the club is right on the embankment beneath the eastern end. Order a Bolt to the bridge and walk the last stretch to the entrance. A cross-town ride before midnight is cheap, often single digits in GEL.
Getting home is the part nobody plans for, so plan for it now.
At 5am there is no metro. The metro does not open until 6am, and there is no night bus network worth relying on. Your realistic option is Bolt. Late-night and dawn fares carry a surge, so a ride that cost you 6 GEL on the way in can read 15–25 GEL on the way out, sometimes more if it is raining or a big event is emptying at once. That is still a fair price for a bed. Do not accept a street cab quoting a flat 40 or 50: order the app instead and pay the metered fare. If you would rather not stand on a dark embankment waiting for a car, walk up to the main road above the bridge where drivers reach you faster.
For the full breakdown of night fares, surge and airport runs, see getting around Tbilisi. And if you are lining up a whole night out, our Tbilisi nightlife guide maps where else the night goes after the techno stops.
Frequently asked questions
Is Khidi still open in 2026?
It is. The club marked ten years with a three-stage anniversary weekend in June 2026 and keeps its Friday and Saturday programme running. If a night looks quiet online, it is because Khidi only trades on weekends, not because it has shut.
What should I wear to get past the door?
Dark, plain, comfortable. Trainers over heels. Skip anything flashy or clubby-in-the-bottle-service sense. The door is reading your intent more than your outfit, so looking like a techno regular and staying sober-ish at the entrance matters more than any single garment.
Can I take photos inside Khidi?
No. Phone cameras are off-limits on the floor, and staff enforce it. Some people put a sticker over the lens on the way in. Treat it as part of the deal rather than a rule to test.
How late does Khidi stay open?
Until about 9am. The real crowd lands after 2am and the last few hours, dawn light hitting the open-air yard, are what regulars come for. If you leave at 3am you will have seen the warm-up, not the club.
One last thing before you commit to the night: eat something heavy at dinner and set an alarm on your phone for when you want to leave. The room has no clocks and no daylight, and the single most common Khidi mistake is looking up, realising it is somehow 7am, and having wasted your whole next day before you have even left.
Featured image: Photo: Arnold Jaeger Werner / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) — illustrative
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