Ten Years of Good Clean Fun

Leave a good thing alone, the saying goes, and the team behind Exit was most likely guided by this idea while organising the tenth consecutive Exit Festival, the largest event of its kind in the Balkans.

By Igor Conić

The breathtaking site of the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad is this year once again from July 9^th to 12^th, hosting tens of thousands of foreign and local fans of great music by numerous international stars.

From its inception as a student protest against a regime that stifled Serbia’s contact with the rest of the world, Exit has over the past decade trans-formed into an internationally recognised festival that is swarmed, year after year, by tens of thousands of young people from the region, Europe and the world. After Exit 00 – held on the bank of the Danube in Novi Sad for 100 days in the historic year of 2000 and offering to young people in Serbia something that they could only dream about in the 1990s – the festival moved to the Petrovaradin Fortress the following year and with each passing year the festival was better organised and drew ever bigger names on the international music scene. It has completely retained its initial underlying concept that propelled it to world fame – a fascinating atmosphere.

Music – as a means of discerning differences and connecting similarities – thousands of young people prepared to rise to the challenge of making the world a better place, the fairytale backdrop of the medieval fortress and more than 500 musicians on 20 stages – this is what constitutes Exit ten years later.

As always, the festival’s biggest stars will perform on the Main Stage that has already hosted such names the Beastie Boys, Billy Idol or Fatboy Slim. This year, the main attraction will certainly be a most sought after musician in Serbia, an artist who has sold more than 20 million copies of his albums – Moby. The sound of no lesser stars – The Prodigy, who "wreaked havoc" at the festival last year, will this year once again reverberate from the Main Stage. This English band has issued a phenomenal new album and mounted a tour to conquer the world all over again. Brace yourself for another compelling rush of energy on the Exit festival Main Stage on Friday, July 10, when Korn is scheduled to appear. The Manic Street Preachers – a band that for over two decades has been arousing inspiration, love, revolt, devotion and which continues to create rock mythology as they make history – will also perform on the same day.

An ice-crystal demeanour, analogue sound transformed into digital, electronically processed voices... that can only be Kraftwerk. This band is behind some of the most emotional electronic numbers in the history of recorded music. If you want to hear them live, come to Exit 09 where you will also be able to check out Arctic Monkeys, who will deliver to the audience at Petrovaradin Fortress a rhythm that will make you want to dance and revolt at the same time. Arctic Monkeys will bring their fresh and untainted energy, a cynical yet likeable attitude with a touch of derision regarding social order – all wrapped in incomparable charm.

The appetite of domestic music fans is sure to be whetted and appeased by performances on the Fusion Stage of Partibrejkers, Marčelo, Orthodox Celts as well as the renowned rock and blues band called Majke. However, those keen on making the absolute most of it by sticking it out until the wee hours of the morning are bound to descend into the caldera of the Dance arena that foreign media have frequently described as the best dance-techno stage in Europe. This year, as in previous years, it will play host to great DJ stars such as Eric Prydz, Steve Angello and Carl Cox with Green Velvet, who will appear back-to-back on Sunday, July 12. Cox, who may rightfully be regarded as the most popular DJ of all times and who remains a leading name on the Chicago DJ scene, will mix his sound with someone else for the first time.

The motto of the 10^th Exit festival is Leave No Trace, a tribute to environmental protection. An association of 50 of the biggest festivals in Europe  – Yourope – has developed a concept called Green & Clean, and Exit is joining it this year through efforts to preserve the Petrovaradin Fortress for what it is – a unique jewel on the Danube.