Exit (festival)

EXIT was an annual music festival held in Serbia since 2000. Traditionally staged at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, it has grown into one of Europe’s largest music events, attracting around 200,000 visitors in recent editions.

The festival has won the Best Major Festival award at the European Festivals Awards in both 2013 and 2017, and was named "Best European Festival" at the UK Festival Awards in 2007. In 2018, the Regional Cooperation Council also recognized EXIT as the Champion of Regional Cooperation for 2017, among other awards.

History

The festival was founded in 2000 in Novi Sad, Serbia as a student movement, fighting for democracy and freedom in Serbia and the Balkans. After the Yugoslavian general election in 2000, Exit moved from the city's university campus to the Petrovaradin Fortress in the same city in 2001. Nonetheless, social responsibility was still a key aspect of the festival activities. In February 2007, Dušan Kovačević, the festival's co-founder and majority owner, decided to donate the festival to the city of Novi Sad following external offers to purchase the event, with a view that it would keep the festival within the city, stating that "because of the wider contribution and conditions under which [Exit] was created, (...) it cannot be the property of an individual, but of the wider community."

Critics felt that in doing so, management of the festival was given away to the region's ruling political party, which they felt was contrary to the movement upon which the festival was initially based.

In 2007 Exit won the Best Overseas Festival award at the UK Festival Awards and was voted Best European Festival at the Yourope Awards. It won the Best Major Festival award at the European Festivals Awards in 2013 and 2017. In 2022 Exit Festival and Tixbase (formerly NFT-TiX), won The Innovation Award at the UK Festival Awards

In 2006 The Observer listed Exit as its festival pick in its list of top 25 travel experiences. The Guardian listed it in "12 top trips for 2008". The international edition of CNN, CNN World Fiesta, included Exit on the list of nine best music festivals in the world in 2011. In 2013 Euronews listed Exit as sixth in its pick of 10 European music festivals. In 2018 BBC News noted Exit as one of the world's largest music festivals, hosting more than 200,000 people from 60 countries. In June 2019 Forbes published an article claiming that "Thanks to the upcoming EXIT Festival, Serbia is now a new festival hot spot worth your attention".

Superbrands Serbia 2006–2007 listed Exit as one of seven public urban identity super brands. In March 2018 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Regional Cooperation Council awarded the Exit Festival as Champion of Regional Cooperation for 2017.

Exit group organizes five events in five countries: Sea Star Festival (Umag, Croatia) in May, Get EXITed (Strumica, North Macedonia) and Ada Divine Awakening Festival (Ada Bojana, Montenegro) in September, No Sleep Festival (Belgrade, Serbia) in November, and an upcoming event at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt from October 2026. The Exit festival itself was cancelled after the 2025 edition, due to the political pressure, while previously, Exit also organized Festival 84 (Jahorina Mountain, Bosnia and Herzegovina), which was cancelled in February 2019 due to administrative reasons beyond the organizers' control, Sunland Festival in Primorsko, Bulgaria in 2021, Revolution Festival in Timișoara, Romania, which lasted from 2014 to 2019, and Sea Dance Festival in Montenegro and Croatia, which lasted from 2014 do 2023.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, festivals organized by the Exit group in 2020 were postponed until 2021, except for Sea Star, Revolution, and No Sleep festivals, which were postponed until 2022. Exit Festival, which was initially pushed back to August 2020, was ultimately postponed until July 2021 but held a 4-day semi-virtual edition in September 2020 as part of the global Life Stream project. During the four days, only 250 in-person attendees were allowed each day, while videos of the performances were presented at the end of September to the multi-million audience worldwide through the eight-day-long streaming festival.

In July 2021, the festival became the first major festival to be held in Europe since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was reported as a historic moment by leading global media such as Billboard, IQ Mag, Variety and NME. It hosted c. 40,000 attendees per day and took place at the Petrovaradin Fortress, an hour away from capital Belgrade.

Exit festival 2022, under the slogan "Together. Always!", was held in its full capacity compared to the years of the pandemic, across more than 40 stages and zones, and three stages that were improved compared to previous years. Over four days, the festival was visited by about c. 200,000 people, and the main performers were Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Calvin Harris, Iggy Azalea, Masked Wolf, ZHU, Sepultura and others.

In November 2022, Exit announced the next edition of the festival, the theme of which was 'Universe', which was held from July 6 to 9, 2023, at the Petrovaradin Fortress.

In March 2025, organizers told in an interview with IQ Magazine that the 2025 edition may be the last that will take place in Serbia due to the festival's support of the ongoing student protests. Organizers said that they have experienced "mounting pressure and threats aimed at silencing [their] right to free expression". The EXIT team has publicly aligned itself with the protestors and provided them with food, sleeping bags and other necessities. On July 9, the organizers and the media claimed that the next edition of the festival would take place at the Great Pyramid of Giza, although the information was disproved on September 9, with the festival CEO, Dušan Kovačević, stating that, "due to the increasingly frequent dilemmas regarding whether Exit is moving to Egypt, (...) [they] are creating new festivals, as in previous years", confirming that "there is no possibility that the [Exit] festival will be held in Serbia [in 2026]", and announcing a "global tour".

Festival lineups

See also

• List of rock festivals

External links