Music Magic by the Danube

The city of Novi Sad is to host some of the biggest international stars during the EXIT festival on July 8-11.

By Igor Conić
Photo by Exitfest

Thanks to the EXIT festival the Petrovaradin Fortress has long since gone beyond the borders of Serbia and evolved into an arena of international renown. This 18thcentury monument overlooking the Danube River is this year yet again to play host to some of the music world’s greatest stars, and once again place Novi Sad, Vojvodina and Serbia as a whole on the music pedestal.

By far the biggest star of the upcoming festival will be Faith No More. One of the most sought after bands in former Yugoslavia is scheduled to appear at the festival! After twelve-years - although many claimed it could never happen - Faith No More members quickly rallied in February 2009 and began their The Second Coming tour. Now, finally, they are coming also to Novi Sad for the festival. The EXIT festival audience will thus be able to hear such memorable numbers as We Care a Lot, Epic, Easy, and that Sunday will definitively be a day to remember at EXIT, as Faith No More are due to appear on the festival’s Main Stage.

This celebrated California band is expected to bring back to life part of rock history during their eagerly awaited performance on the EXIT Main Stage, together with the ‘holy grail’ of punk rock - Bad Brains - and the British indie rock band - The Horrors. The Main Stage this year will see exclusive new appearances of The Chemical Brothers, the long-awaited Placebo, with their vigorous and emotional sound, the sovereign queen of hip hop - Missy Elliott, the electronic punk disco masters - LCD Soundsystem and the famous drum-n-bass group - Pendulum "live". The audience will also be in a position to enjoy the seductive and melodious electronic sound of the Röyksopp duo from Norway, while the performance of British pop star Mika promises to be an exciting one as well as the sensations on the new music scene - Crystal Castles and Klaxtons.

The internationally acclaimed EXIT festival’s Dance Arena this year presents dance-love sounds of the duo from Montreal - Chromeo, while godfather of techno sound Ricardo Villalobos, creative and catchy Moderat, David Guetta, Laidback Luke, ATrak, Crookers, Boys Noize, Erol Alkan, Ida Engberg have confirmed their appearances at the festival as did Ed Banger label’s SebastiAn, Busy P and DJ Mehdi and many others. And, should this not be quite enough, the over twenty stages of EXIT will offer appearances of a series of diverse musicians that will mark the festival’s opening its new decade.

For those who have not been to the EXIT festival, perhaps the best way to get to know what it stands for is to take a virtual tour offered at the www.exitfest.org web address. Interactive 360-degree panoramic views afford one ‘presence’ at nearly every corner of the festival and feeling the atmosphere of the best performances so far. After this virtual tour, all one need do is buy the ticket by accessing www.gigstix.com at the price of 10,990 dinars and make travel arrangements via EXIT’s new tourist service for festival visitors called Exit Trip. To quickly and comfortably obtain accommodation in Novi Sad, Exit Trip provides also an official transfer service from all the neighboring countries as well as from Belgrade. Use this service to travel from Budapest and from Belgrade by boarding Exit Trip luxury buses, minivans and limousines that would take you directly to the biggest music festival in this part of Europe.

Jat Airways is the general sponsor and partner of EXIT festival’s tourist section. Jat and EXIT are joining forces toward promoting Serbia as the ultimate destination for young people around the world. The Serbian national air carrier’s airplanes will be carrying festival visitors from over 30 major European cities to Belgrade at subsidized prices so that all those wishing to visit Serbia could reach our country as comfortably as possible and make their stay in it as long as possible. The official tourist portal of EXIT festival is www.exittrip.org