(Editor’s note: EXIT Festival 2025 will take place in Novi Sad, Serbia from 10 July to 13 July. This post is taken from several sources, including news releases from EXIT Festival and media reports.)
EXIT Festival, Europe’s award-winning music festival, is announcing this summer’s edition is its final one in Serbia, according to a news release. Festival organizers are planning to decamp at least temporarily to Germany or perhaps to a neighboring country in the Balkans such as Croatia, according to media reports.
Born in 2000 as a grass roots student movement for peace and reunited youth across the Balkans, EXIT has become a global emblem of unity, tolerance, creativity and youth empowerment and a tourism catalyst for Serbia. But politics are bringing the party to a halt.
EXIT Festival has its roots in the pro-democracy protest movement which eventually led to the defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia’s presidential elections in 2000.
Since EXIT publicly aligned with Serbia’s student-led anti-corruption protests – following the Novi Sad railway station collapse in November 2024 that claimed 15 lives – state-backed pressure has ramped up. EXIT has since been stripped of all government funding, including cultural grants, due to its stance.
Sponsors have also been forced to withdraw, pressured by pro-government actors.
Founder and Director Dušan Kovačević posted this statement on Instagram:
“This is the hardest decision in our 25-year history but we believe that freedom has no price. With this act we are defending not only EXIT but the fundamental right to free expression for all cultural actors around the world. We invite them to stand with us in this fight.”
EXIT Festival is famous for its venue, Petrovaradin Fortress, that dates back to the Roman Empire. The Festival has been staged at the fortress since its 2001. Now one of Europe’s premier festivals, EXIT drew 210,000 people from more than 80 countries in 2024.
Since the train station disaster, festival organizers have donated food and sleeping bags to protesters protesting at universities and municipal buildings and plan to give student activists their own stage at this year’s festival. This led the nationalist/authoritarian government of Aleksandar Vučić to rescind about 1.5 million euros in national and regional tourism grants, according to the Guardian.
EXIT Festival has presented an incredibly varied lineup of top acts over the years, including nearly every major EDM name. These include the late Avicii, David Guetta, Maceo Plex, Calvin Harris, Carl Cox and Nina Kraviz, while still remaining affordable.
Non-EDM acts included White Stripes, Snoop Dog, Nick Cave, the Black Eyed Peas and Wu-Tang Clan, among many others.
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See more about music festivals here in Dispatches’ archives.
