Exit (festival)
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| Location(s) | Petrovaradin, Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia |
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| Years active | 2000 - present |
| Founded by | Dušan Kovačević, Bojan Bošković, Ivan Milivojev |
| Date(s) | Four days, starting on the second Thursday of July |
| Genre | Rock, Electronica, Electronic dance music, Metal, Hip hop, Punk, Drum and Bass |
| Website | www.exitfest.org |
Exit (Literary Serbian: Егзит, Egzit) (also known as State of Exit) is award winning summer music festival which is held at the Petrovaradin Fortress in the city of Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia. It was officialy proclaimed as the 'Best Major European festival' at the EU Festival Awards which were held in Groningen in January 2014. The EU Festival Award is considered one of the most prestigious festival awards in the world, and for the 2014 ceremony 620,000 people voted choosing between 360 festivals from 34 countries.[1]
Exit festival was founded in 2000 in University park as a student movement fighting for democracy and freedom in Serbia and the Balkans. After democratic changes happened in Serbia, Exit moved to the Petrovaradin fortress in 2001. Social responsibility is still a very important aspect of festival activities.
Exit has won 'Best Overseas Festival' at UK Festival Awards in 2007,[2] 'Best Major Festival Award' in 2013[3] and was ranked one of the 10 best major festivals at European Festival Awards 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and one of the 10 Best Overseas Festival at UK Festival Awards 2013.[4]
Exit gained international media attention over the years. International edition of CNN, CNN World Fiesta, featured an article on music festivals in the beginning of June 2011, which included Exit in the list of nine best festivals in the world.[5] The Guardian declared Exit as the best festival in the world in 2006[6] and the best tourist destination in 2008.[7] The Sun, British daily newspaper, included Exit in the list of eight best festival destinations in 2012.[8] In Euronews's May 2013 article on world's leading festival destinations, Exit was included in the ten best European festivals in 2013.[9]
Exit received several awards: Golden Superbrand at Superbrands Serbia 2006,[10] Best SEE Event at SEE.ME Awards in 2007, 2008 and 2010.[11] UK Festival Awards 2007, together with Yourope, the Association of the 40 largest festivals in Europe, awarded Exit the 'Best European Festival' award.
History
The festival began in 2000 as a student protest against the government. During its existence, Exit has been visited by over two million people[12] from more than 60 countries. CNN, The New York Times, and many others have on numerous occasions proclaimed Exit amongst the Top Ten world festival destinations.
Location
Exit takes place at the Petrovaradin Fortress, located on the right bank of the river Danube in Novi Sad. The location is important for the festival’s atmosphere while it offers superb acoustics, allowing that different events and gigs take place one next to another, without the sound interference.
Stages
Main Stage
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Main Stage of the Exit festival is situated at the very heart of Petrovaradin Fortress, with its capacity of over 35,000 people, with a scenic natural backdrop.
Every year Main Stage welcomes renowned stars and artists from all music genres. Along with the most popular performers, it also features the best electronic acts in the After 2AM sessions, which have become a trademark of the festival, allowing the party to continue until dawn.
In previous years Main Stage hosted some of the best artists in the world: Pet Shop Boys, Morrissey, Billy Idol, Guns N' Roses, Franz Ferdinand, Stereo MC's, Iggy Pop, Massive Attack, The Cult, White Stripes, Garbage, Goldfrapp, The Cardigans, Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan, The Prodigy, Sex Pistols, NERD, The Streets, The Hives, Kraftwerk, Lily Allen, Madness, Korn, Moby, Manic Street Preachers, Patti Smith, Arctic Monkeys, Chemical Brothers, Faith No More, Placebo, Klaxons, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Pulp, Jamiroquai, Portishead, Grinderman, Bad Religion, Editors, M.I.A., Slayer, Juliette and the Licks, Suicidal Tendencies, Emir & Frozen Camels etc.
Dance Arena
Dance Arena is the second largest Exit festival stage with its capacity of over 25,000 people.
Dance Arena starts in the evening playing right through to sunrise.
In previous years the Dance Arena has hosted almost some of the most influential world DJ's and producers such as: Carl Cox, Sven Vath, Sharam, Francois K, Tiga, Axwell, Laurent Garnier, John Digweed, Darren Emerson, Danny Tenaglia, Frankie Knuckles, Eric Prydz, Eric Morillo, Green Velvet, Richie Hawtin, Dubfire, James Zabiela, Nic Fanciulli, Adam Beyer, Steve Lawler, Lee Burridge, David Morales, Sander Kleinenberg, Marshall Jefferson, Roger Sanchez, Timo Maas, LTJ Bukem, Felix The Housecat, David Guetta etc.
Explosive Stage
This is the place for a hard sound: Metal, HC, Punk.
In previous years Explosive Stage has hosted Napalm Death, U.D.O., Death Angel, The Exploited, The Business, Agnostic Front, Sham 69, Satyricon, Max Cavalera & Danny Lilker, Suicidal Tendencies, Rotting Christ, Behemoth, Decapitated, Keep of Kalessin, Walls of Jericho, Cathedral, Deathstars, Sabaton, Tiamat, 69 Eyes, My Dying Bride, Kataklysm and Arkona and many others.
Fusion Stage
Fusion Stage is one of the biggest stages on Festival. It played host to some of the most prominent rock, pop alternative performers, domestic and regional, but many European and worldly as well.
Happynovisad Stage
Happynovisad Stage is the second largest electronic stage at the festival.
Happynovisad Stage came into life in 2005. In December 2010, it started live video streaming, the gathering place for the most popular local and regional DJs.
Elektrana Stage
Elektrana stage at Exit Festival came into being 2005, with an intention to present the festival audience with the up-and-coming domestic and regional electro scene, at the time not well-known enough around here. During all these years, Elektrana has been supporting young music creators, as well as those performers who hadn’t yet been to Serbia. Presenting electro, electro-pop and synth-pop marvels, as well as quirky retro-glam esthetics embodied in stage’s logo of pink light bulb.
Exit Online Label
The website exitmusic.rs/en was created in February 2009 with a desire to offer local and regional performers better promotion through free download and live performances on Exit festival. Exit provides talented musicians with systematic support, using its existing logistics and promotional campaigns. In five years, Exit online label has released 50 LPs and EPs available for free download with more than 1 million downloads.
In February 2011, WeShareMusic was introduced, a campaign that serves to promote performers through various actions: Exit Label, Play@Exit Competition as an opportunity for new, unsigned bands to perform at the festival, Exit Music Conference as well as cooperation with other European festivals with the goal to promote domestic and regional scene and band exchanges. In February 2011, ExitLabel presented plaque awards to the most listened performers at exitmusic.rs.
State Of Exit Foundation
The State of Exit Foundation was founded in 2010 in Novi Sad. Its main goal is helping young citizens of Novi Sad to gain new academic experiences through financing and co-financing their scholarships and academic projects. The foundation supports student efforts to catch up with advanced scientific research trends and high professional standards at the international level in science, culture and sports.
An individual Foundation Scholarship Program began in 2010. In cooperation with the University of Novi Sad, the Foundation developed a program of scholarships for individual students, a program to support individual students’ projects, as well as student organizations, while it includes regular student population in the community and Exit Festival’s youth campaigns.
Since 2013, Exit has a goal to participate in mobilizing current opinion and deciding on two areas it has been known for: destination branding and youth development. State of Exit Foundation dedicates its work to key topics in social involvement: national branding, regional connection through creative industries, as well as promoting positive examples to the youth.[13]
History by years
Exit 2000
The inaugural installment of Exit was held around 100 days throughout the summer of 2000 on various stages set up between University of Novi Sad's Faculty of Philosophy building and the Danube's left bank. Initially the festival had a pronounced political component, representing, in effect, another form of anti-Milošević protest. Although, due to fear of regime repression, its activism was thinly veiled under the guise of merely getting the youth interested in political process, the festival's ties with Otpor! and other forces pushing for the regime change were clear to all that attended.
Through multiple appearances by domestic bands like Darkwood Dub, Orthodox Celts, Eyesburn, Van Gogh, Atheist Rap, Deca loših muzičara, as well as a wide variety of art performances, the crowds were encouraged to get involved. The festival ended a couple of days before the September 24, 2000 Federal Presidential election, which ended up becoming the first step in the government's overthrow.
The slogan of the festival was: 'Exit out of ten years of madness', a reference to the Milošević regime.
Exit 2001
After straightening out some issues with municipal authorities over the use of the Petrovaradin fortress,[14] Exit crossed the Danube to move into the historic site. The 2001 festival (July 6 to July 14) was set as the celebration of Serbia finally being rid of Milošević, as well as of the country opening up to the world again after years of international isolation. This year's event also went under the name 'Exit - Noise Summer Fest'.
In many ways Exit became the new authorities' darling as different levels of the government (municipal, provincial and republican) all made sure the event received plenty of funding. The presence of politicians was very heavy indeed - the festival was opened by Vojvodina provincial assembly president Nenad Čanak and Novi Sad mayor Borislav Novaković. Furthermore, Minister of Finance Božidar Đelić and the National Bank governor Mlađan Dinkić performed a set of EKV covers before a raucous crowd.
It was cut down to the more focused and manageable nine days with foreign acts Finley Quaye, Banco de Gaia, Kosheen, Tony Allen, manCHILD, Maximum Roach, 4hero, etc. rocking the Main and DJ stages. Serbian crowds also had an opportunity to again see the acts from other parts of ex-Yugoslavia like Darko Rundek or KUD Idijoti that not too long before that started touring Serbia again after staying away for close to a decade.
This was also the year when the festival organizers started to carve out its musical profile. With the Main stage reserved for most commercially appealing acts (both foreign and domestic), they also introduced the DJ and Rock stages, clearly indicating the festival would be open to all kinds of music.
In addition to music, 2001 Exit featured drama performances from different regional theatres, as well as workshops and socio-political roundtables discussing issues like reconciliation among the nations of former Yugoslavia.
Exit 2002
Exit's 2002 edition (July 5 - July 13) was in many ways a repeat of the previous year, which noticeably clashed with the festival's new marketing mantra 'Serbia, are you ready for the future?'. Though it brought plenty of fresh DJ talents like David Morales, Darren Emerson, LTJ Bukem, Lottie, Marshall Jefferson, Erick Morillo, as well as Main stage acts like Asian Dub Foundation, Transglobal Underground, Fun-Da-Mental, Smoke City, Blue States, etc., Exit 02 featured too many of the already seen performers like Tony Allen, manCHILD, Banco de Gaia, Darko Rundek, Roni Size, Jasmina Mitrušić, Van Gogh, and Love Hunters.
Even if attendance was impressive once again (more than 250,000 visitors over nine days), many among the crowds were somewhat disappointed by the absence of really big and relevant names.
Immediately following the end of 2002 Exit, the organizers announced a €300,000 loss for that year's event.
This led to criticism and allegations of financial mismanagement by the Democratic Party of Serbia's (DSS) Novi Sad branch. The party announced plans of pushing for the creation of a special commission within the Novi Sad municipal assembly that would look into the festival's finances.[15]
Exit 2003
Exit 2003 was staged from July 3 to July 6, 2003. Organizers heeded the previous public advice by giving the festival a major organizational and conceptual makeover. It was shortened down to four days along with a new 'State of Exit' marketing campaign.[16] Additionally, they also did away with most of the non-musical content, marking the beginning of festival's commercial shift. This was visibly reflected in the aggressive advertising presence, of which the festival had been spared up to that point through generous government funding. Each of the seven stages had a separate sponsor and the ticket prices went up.
Justifiably, the line-up was much more mass-audience friendly with acts like Rollins Band, Tricky, Moloko, Stereo MCs, Dirty Vegas, Chumbawamba, Soul II Soul, Shane MacGowan, Misty in Roots, Pete Tong, Tim Deluxe, Jeff Mills, Rambo Amadeus, Mizar along with old favorites Roni Size, Darren Emerson, Lottie, etc.
Exit 2004
The lead up to Exit 04 (July 1–4, 2004) was almost as eventful as the 4-day happening itself. On June 7, three weeks before the festival's scheduled opening night, four of the organizers were arrested for embezzlement. The specific charge was "defrauding the organization of 12 million dinars (around US$160,000) by doctoring official financial papers".[17]
Two of them, suspected of assisting, were released almost immediately, while Dušan Kovačević, Exit society president and Bojan Bošković, Exit general manager were assigned 30-day detention to prevent them from influencing potential witnesses since they were now suspected of failing to report the actual revenue from Exit 2003 ticket sales by writing up false invoices. The remaining Exit team fronted by spokesperson Aleksandra Kolar vehemently denied the charges, claiming the festival was the target of political persecution. On June 15, after examining seven witnesses that confirmed the earlier police statements by Kovačević and Bošković, the duo was released after seven days of prison detention.[18] No charges were ever pressed.
So following a rough week during which it looked like the festival might even be cancelled for the year, the event was on again. The commercialization took further root with many more in-your-face sponsors and even the omnipresent MTV coming to Petrovaradin fortress for the first time to shoot a documentary on Novi Sad and the festival, as well as to publicize a human trafficking awareness campaign.[19] The insatiable British music press also discovered the festival, resulting in some very affirmative reviews in NME and Mojo.
Exit 2004 instituted a Balkan Fusion stage for the variety of regional acts. The Main stage was reserved for headliners Massive Attack, Soulfly, Iggy and the Stooges, Cypress Hill as well as Brand New Heavies, Goldfrapp, The Wailers, Peaches, Rambo Amadeus, Partibrejkers, Emir & Frozen Camels, Darkwood Dub, Obojeni Program, Adam Freeland, 4hero, Neneh Cherry, and especially reunited for-one-night-only 1980s Novi Sad favourites Luna.
The DJ stage featured some big names like Speedy J, Timo Maas, Sander Kleinenberg, Roger Sanchez, Howie B, X-Press 2, Ken Ishii, etc., while the aforementioned Balkan stage saw the return of new-look Kanda, Kodža i Nebojša after a 3-year absence.
Exit 2005
In 2005 (July 7 to July 10), Exit received a further media boost when BBC Radio 1 announced it would be covering the festival live. With a DJ crew of Annie Mac, Annie Nightingale, Gilles Peterson, and Fabio descending upon Novi Sad, British listeners as well as the BBC's worldwide audience were able to hear live broadcasts from the festival site. MTV also returned for the second year in a row.
The organizers' idea to commemorate some painful events from recent Balkans' history didn't exactly go according to plan. Their initial intention was to dedicate a minute of silence to victims of Srebrenica massacre at the stroke of midnight between the festival's last day and July 11 early morning - Srebrenica's tenth anniversary. However, after crowd commotion on one of the smaller stages during the Dubioza kolektiv set couple of days before, when the band consisting of Bosnian Muslims played a collage of Srebrenica-related soundbites by Serbian politicians on the screen behind them, the mostly Serbian crowd started pelting the performers on stage with plastic water bottles, as well as continuous pressure from far-right SRS that objected to what it saw to be glorification of Bosnian Muslim victims of war over Bosnian Serb ones, the organizers scrapped the minute of silence fearing more crowd trouble. Instead, they announced plans to play the song 'I Saved the World Today' by Annie Lennox as a way to remember all victims with different video beams around the festival site showing a message of peace "Standing here ten years later, let's promise our children, our children's grandchildren as well as the children of our children's grandchildren that Srebrenica, Bratunac, Vukovar, Operation 'Storm', Ahmići, Đakovica, Staro Gacko will not be repeated. Never again!" But even that plan was abandoned on suggestions from local police after few earlier bomb threats that turned out to be false. The final decision was left up to the festival organizers and they decided the possible threat of security trouble was just too big. Afterwards, mayor Maja Gojković also revealed she received anonymous threats ordering her to "stay away from the fortress during the festival, or else".[20]
As for the music itself, the lineup was by far the strongest ever. With headliners Apocalyptica, Garbage, The White Stripes, and Fatboy Slim, hugely popular Ladytron, Overdrive (band), Slayer, Underworld, Ian Brown, The Datsuns, Carl Cox, Felix da Housecat, DJ Marky & DJ Patife, 2 Many DJs, Sasha, and regional favourites Edo Maajka, Disciplin A Kitschme, Laibach, etc., the crowds were treated to some truly diverse music.
More than 150,000 people passed through the fortress' gates over four days. For the first time since its inception, Exit saw a large foreign (outside of former Yugoslavia) presence. Over one thousand Britons attended, which was the result of cheap admission tickets for an average Westerner as well as positive reviews the festival had been getting in British press.
Exit 2006
Exit 2006 took place July 6–9, 2006.
The headliners on the main stage were Franz Ferdinand, Morrissey, Billy Idol, Pet Shop Boys, The Cardigans, The Cult, Dizzee Rascal, HIM and Scissor Sisters. Dance Arena performers included Dave Clarke, David Guetta, Derrick May, Eric Prydz, Hernán Cattáneo, James Zabiela, Jeff Mills, Junior Jack, Layo & Bushwacka!, Nick Warren, Simian Mobile Disco and Steve Angello. Other artists that were playing on Exit 06 are Suzanne Vega, Plejboj, Darkwood Dub, Siddharta, Eyesburn, Moonspell, Madball, The Beat Fleet, Dog Eat Dog, Partibrejkers, Obojeni Program, and Rambo Amadeus. The festival was closed by Kiril Džajkovski.
Exit 2006 had 22 stages with more than 600 performers in total: Main Stage - the main festival ground; Dance Arena - former DJ Arena, the 2nd biggest stage reserved for electronic music; Fusion stage - stage reserved for performers coming from South-Eastern Europe; World Music stage - World and ethno music; Happynovisad stage - second-in-size electronic music stage; Hip-Hop stage - new stage as of 2006 reserved for hip-hop performers; Future Shock stage - unknown bands have a chance to get heard on this stage; Metal stage - metal, hard rock and punk stage with a capacity of 5,000; DJ Super Star stage; Café del Danube stage; Roots & Flowers stage; SUS stage; Elektrana stage; MTV Free Your Mind stage; Positive Vibration stage; Latino stage; Reggae stage and also smaller stages: Agora stage; Stripanziva stage; Cinema stage; VIP stage and Crossroad stage.
The festival saw a large foreign contingent, mostly from the UK, Ireland and Germany, accounting for 27% of the total visitors' number of over 150,000. The most attended performance was the one of Billy Idol with around 45,000 spectators according to the festival sources.
Visitors could watch the World Cup finals on big screens that were placed around the fortress.
In mid-April 2006, Exit organizers signed a contract with mayor Maja Gojković stipulating terms of a 3-year cooperation commitment on the part of Novi Sad municipal government. Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Enlargement, visited the festival opening ceremony and he held a speech about European visas.
Exit 2007
Exit 2007 was held from July 12 to July 15, 2007. It was attended by 190,000 people, with more than half being foreigners. Most came away from the festival with positive opinions regarding the festival and Serbia.[21]
On November 9, 2006, Exit organizers and Serbian Ministry of Finance signed a support protocol ensuring the Ministry's minimum commitment of 30 million dinars (around €380,000) in each of the next four years (2007–2010) towards the festival's annual operating costs. Present at the public signing were the outgoing Minister of Finance Mlađan Dinkić, Exit co-founder Bojan Bošković, as well as performers Rambo Amadeus and Obojeni Program's frontman Kebra.
In the meantime, Bošković and president of Vojvodina's government Bojan Pajtić signed a protocol about 'Winter Exit' series of club dates, which took place from January 5 until January 20 as a club tour of several Serbian acts throughout six cities in Vojvodina. For this project, the government spent about €50,000.
On January 19, a well established production company Komuna made a public offer to the Exit team in regards to the festival's organizational and operating costs in the next five years but the offer was rejected.[22]
Performers on the Main Stage were (in order of appearance): Tanya Stephens, Robert Plant and Strange Sensation, The Prodigy, Groove Armada, Stanton Warriors and MC Wreck, Overflow, The Pipettes, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Beastie Boys, Zinc b2b Friction and Dynamite MC, Dubioza kolektiv, Lauryn Hill, Basement Jaxx, Snoop Dogg, LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad, Mala Vita, Van Gogh, Audio Bullys, Wu-Tang Clan, Pendulum DJ set with MC Verse, and finally Tayo DJ Set.
Performers on the Dance Arena were (in order of appearance): Marko Milosavljević, Deepchild, Trentemøller, Green Velvet, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Dee Face, Serge Santiago, 20:20 Soundsystem, Paul Woolford, Danny Tenaglia, Nic Fanciulli, Ivan Mastermix, Hannah Holland, Frankie Knuckles, Roger Sanchez, Justin Martin, Noise Destruction, Dejan Milićević, Sébastien Léger, Blackstrobe, John Digweed, Eric Prydz, Marko Nastić.
Exit 2008
After winning the UK Festival Award for Best European Festival, organisers revealed that Exit 2008 will be held from July 10 to July 13, 2008, at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad.
Performers that participated on the festival were 2ManyDJ's, Audion, Axwell, Bad Copy, The Bellrays, Ben Watt, Booka Shade, Claude VonStroke, Danger, DatA, Deep Dish, Dillinja, DJ Hype, François K, Capybara, Gentleman & The Far East Band, Gogol Bordello, Gossip, High Contrast, The Hives, Juliette and the Licks, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Laurent Garnier, Let 3, Lollobrigida Girls, Manu Chao, Miguel Migs feat. Lisa Shaw, Ministry, Moomin, N.E.R.D, Nightwish, Noisia, Paul Weller, The Presets, Primal Scream, Roni Size, Sex Pistols, Sham 69, Shy FX & MC:SP, Soulwax, Sven Väth, Tiamat, Tiga, Tom Novy, Vatra, Zdob şi Zdub, Kultur Shock and the Easter Parade. Pekinška patka, a cult Serbian punk band, has reunited specially for Exit. Over 600 performers took part on Exit 2008.
Icelandic singer Björk was scheduled for playing at the 2008 edition of the festival, but her show was cancelled due to, according to the management of the singer, Björk's recent support of Kosovo independence. The organizers of Exit, however, denied these claims, even though they conceded the email evidence was authentic. Later, they publicly claimed to have extended a new "open invitation" for Björk to perform at Exit.[23]
Exit 2009
Exit Festival 2009 was held from the 9 to 12 July.
Acts on the Main Stage included Moby, hip hop musician Grandmaster Flash, experimental rock band Fucked Up and punk rock singer Patti Smith, British singers Lily Allen and Ebony Bones, British band Madness and British rapper Roots Manuva, The Prodigy, Arctic Monkeys, Manic Street Preachers, German electronic band Kraftwerk and American nu metal band Korn.
Buraka Som Sistema and Rob Da Bank played on the new Suba Stage. Surkin, Das Glow and Orgasmic performed on the Happy Novi Sad stage. Fake Blood was listed on the line-up but was instead replaced by fellow DJ Martelo. Buzzcocks, Swedish indie rock act Mando Diao, Croatian electro-pop band Lollobrigida Girls and electro rockers zZz performed on the Fusion Stage. Swedish electro rock act Lo-Fi-Fnk played live at the Elektrana Stage along with DFA Records's Gucci Soundsystem. Hadouken! also played a DJ set on the eclectic and electronic stage.
As a celebration of the 10th anniversary, the festival brought back some of the most popular DJs that have performed over the years, for exclusive back to back sets. Acts on the Dance Arena included: Sasha, John Digweed, James Zabiela, Nic Fanciulli, Steve Lawler, Lee Burridge, Reboot, Richie Hawtin, Dubfire, Heidi, Justin Martin, Loco Dice, Magda, Gui Boratto, Eric Prydz, Adam Beyer, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Kissy Sell Out, Alex Metric, Tayo, Hannah Holland, Etienne De Crecy, Sander Kleinenberg, Darren Emerson, Marko Nastic, Valentino Kanzyani, Paul Woolford, Yousef, Japanese Popstars, Carl Cox, Green Velvet
Acts on the After 2 program included Andy C, Rusko, Sub Focus, DJ Marky and Chase & Status.
Also there is a new and larger camp site, known as Oficirska plaža or Petrovaradinska Ada.
Exit 2010
Exit 2010 was held from July 8 to July 11, 2010. Acts for Exit 2010 included Christoph Andersson, Faith No More, Placebo, The Chemical Brothers, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Crystal Castles, The Horrors, SebastiAn, DJ Mehdi, A-Trak, Midnight Juggernauts, Klaxons, Chromeo, Zombie Disco Squad, Brodinski, Busy P, Erol Alkan, Crookers, Boys Noize, Röyksopp, Lollobrigida Girls, LCD Soundsystem, Yeasayer, Mika, We Have Band, Miike Snow, Ricardo Villalobos, Moderat, Josh Wink, Missy Elliott, David Guetta, Pendulum and The Exploited, Tesla Boy, Kultur Shock and many more.
In July 2010, State of Exit foundation awarded 25 scholarships for student trips to students of the University of Novi Sad.
During the festival days, first Exit Music Conference - EMC was held. Thirty young DJs got the opportunity to meet big names of the electronic music genre who performed at Exit, and to share knowledge and experiences. Lecturers at the conference included Tim Exile, Laidback Luke and his manager, Josh Wink, Jonty Skruff, Daniel Coles from Beatport, Nick Torrence, Juha, Laeticia Decouens etc.
The organization also featured 600 volunteers for the first time.
Eleventh Exit was closed by Faith No More and The Chemical Brothers, with around 25,000 people in the crowd. Around 165,000 people visited the festival, which featured almost 600 performers on 20 stages.
Exit was recognized as the best event in Southeastern Europe at the 'South East Europe Music Event' conference, held from September 16 to 18 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Fourth year in a row, at UK Festival Awards 2010, Exit was featured in the top ten of the Best Overseas Festival category, among 138 nominated festivals. At European Festival Awards 2010, Exit was nominated, for the second year in a row, for the 'Best Major Festival' award and it was included in top ten nominated festivals.
Exit 2011
At 'Loud & Queer Annual Awards' 2010 held in Belgrade in January 2011, Exit won the award for institutional support to the LGBT population in Serbia. The award was presented by the Loud & Queer collective.
The State of Exit Foundation's second-year open scholarship contest for student trips was held from December 15, 2010 to February 1, 2011, with 25 new students awarded.
International edition of CNN, CNN World Fiesta, featured an article on music festivals in the beginning of June, which included Exit in the list of nine best festivals in the world.[5]
Exit 2011 was held from 7–10 July 2011. Acts included Arcade Fire, Pulp, Jamiroquai, Portishead, Grinderman, M.I.A., Editors, House of Pain, Santigold, Bad Religion, Kreator, Beirut (band), Big Audio Dynamite, Amadou & Mariam, Go Back to the Zoo, Underworld, Deadmau5, Groove Armada, Fedde Le Grand, Magnetic Man, Tiga, James Zabiela, Digitalism live, DJ Sneak, Paul Kalkbrenner, Joris Voorn, Steve Aoki, Carl Craig, Marco Carola, Hadouken!, Joachim Garraud, Better Lost Than Stupid (Martin Buttrich, Davide Squillace, Matthias Tanzmann), Gramophonedzie, Anti-Nowhere League, Kreator, De Staat, Nosaj Thing, Photek and many more.[24]
The second Exit Music Conference – EMC was held at the festival. Exit also hosted the second CEETEP (Central and Eastern European Talent Exchange Program) meeting. The newly formed program featured performers from Central and Eastern Europe performing at various festivals in the region and appearing in the regional press.
Each day of the festival featured around 40,000 people, with Exit's two millionth visitor, Staša Vukadinović from Serbia, entering the festival gates on the third day.[12] The organization of the festival was helped by 1,250 volunteers.
Exit 2012
The Sun, British daily newspaper, included Exit in the list of eight best festival destinations.[8]
Exit 2012 was held from July 8 to July 11, 2012. Acts included Guns N' Roses, Duran Duran, Erykah Badu, New Order, Plan B, Avicii, Skindred, Suicidal Tendencies, When Saints Go Machine, Wolfmother, Hatebreed, Miss Kittin, Sneaky Sound System, Thieves Like Us, Knife Party, Laurent Garnier, Gossip, Claude VonStroke, Jacques Lu Cont, Hercules and Love Affair, Netsky & Dynamite MC, Nikonn, The Toy Dolls, Luciano, Buraka Som Sistema, Kenny Larkin, Borgore, Felix da Housecat, Little Dragon, DAT Politics, Richie Hawtin, The Orange Fandangos, Skream, Sub Focus, Goldie, Brodinski, Eats Everything, Drumsound & Bassline Smith, MistaJam, Sve Barabe, As I Fall and many more.[25]
The festival was visited by more than 150,000 people. Around 1,600 volunteers helped the organization of the Festival.
Also, October 2012 was marked by the change in the management of Exit Festival. Bojan Bošković resigned from the position of the festival's General Manager, and was replaced by one of the original founders of the festival and the new Strategic Director, Dušan Kovačević.[26] The new management introduced a new festival concept, Exit R:Evolution, which announced numerous changes to the existing one, as well as the fifth, warm-up festival day.
Exit 2013
Exit 2013 lasted for five days, first time in the history of the festival. It was held from 10–14 July 2013. Acts for Exit 2013 included Atoms for Peace, Bloc Party, Nile Rodgers & Chic, CeeLo Green, Snoop Dogg, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy, David Guetta, Moonspell, Alice Russell, Cockney Rejects, Chase & Status, Prong, Charged GBH, Diplo, Eric Prydz, Jeff Mills, Matador LIVE!, Pan-Pot, Rudimental, SBTRKT, Seth Troxler, Xilent, Kerri Chandler, Guti, Prototypes, DJ Fresh, Delilah, Apollonia, Broke'n'£nglish, Brookes Brothers, Gregor Tresher, DBridge, Friction & Linguistics, Camo & Krooked, Dynamite MC, Ana Popovic, Rambo Amadeus, Lollobrigida, Bjesovi and many more.
In Euronews's May 2013 article on world's leading festival destinations, Exit was included in the ten best European festivals in 2013.[9]
CeeLo Green had a special performance for Exit's birthday on June 28 at the Liberty Square in Novi Sad. Admission was free of charge and Exit got its sixth day. About 30.000 people attended the concert.
Exit also introduced two new stages - Riffs and Beats, featuring performers from the rock and punk genres, and Gaia Xperiment Trance Stage.
Second regional Youth Fair was held at Novi Sad's Liberty Square and Katolička porta right before the start of the festival, on Monday, June 8, and Tuesday, June 9, respectively. Organizers prepared Get EXITed, a special music program with free entrance for all visitors.
200.000 people passed through the festival gates during five days of the festival.
Exit was also chosen in the top ten of Best Overseas Festival category at UK Festival Awards 2013, with 575,000 votes from the audience. Exit was also nominated for 'Best Major Festival' award at European Festival Awards 2013 and it went through to the second round, and was then nominated in the top ten for this award.
Exit 2014
At the end of 2013, a new festival concept, Exit Adventure, was announced, under the “One Adventure, Two Countries, Seven Days, Countless Memories“ slogan. In January 2014 Exit won ‘Best Major Festival Award‘ at the 5th annual European Festival Awards, which took place at De Oosterport, Groningen, Netherlands.[1][3][27]
In 2014, Exit Festival will last for four days and will be held from July 10 to 13 at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, with the program continuing in Montenegro and the newly introduced three-day Sea Dance Festival at the Jaz Beach from July 15 to 17. Performers for Exit and Sea Dance festivals are yet to be announced.
Festival by year
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The winners of the 5th annual European Festival Awards". Retrieved 16 January 2014.
- ↑ "UK Festival Awards 2007". Virtual Festivals. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Exit wins Best Major Festival at European Festival Awards". Retrieved 16 January 2014.
- ↑ "UK Festival Awards 2013". Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The world's best music festivals". CNN.
- ↑ "The best festival". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ↑ "12 top trips for 2008". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Fest bar none". The Sun.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Get ready for Europe’s music festival season!". Euronews. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ "Superbrands of Serbia". Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ "The South East European Music Event". SeeMe. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Staša Vukadinović dvomilioniti posetilac Egzit festivala". Novi Magazin. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ↑ "State of Exit Fondation". Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ↑ "Zabranjen festival Exit". B92.
- ↑ "Anketna komisija za Exit". B92.
- ↑ Blic magazin extra (2007): Exit history. ISSN 1452-5712 COBISS.SR-ID 141194764
- ↑ "Pritvor za dva čelnika Exita". B92.
- ↑ "Organizatori Egzita na slobodi". B92.
- ↑ "Ugovor o saradnji Egzita i MTV". B92.
- ↑ "Završen Exit 05". B92.
- ↑ "Foreigners outnumbered locals at Exit 2007". B92. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
- ↑ "Još jedna ponuda". B92. 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
- ↑ "Bjork management: Kosovo WAS behind Exit festival". NME. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
- ↑ "Program Exit festivala 2011.". Politika. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
- ↑ "New Order na Exit festivalu". RTV. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
- ↑ "Exit će biti održan". Politika. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ↑ "Exit proglašen za najbolji evropski festival". Grotto. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to EXIT (festival). |
- Official web-site
- Official tourist web-site
- Official Exit Festival Ticket Outlet
- Exit Festival Transport & Accommodation Travel Site
- Into Exit, accommodation in Novi Sad, transport and information for Exit
- Exit Festival - myspace
- Unofficial Exit Site and Forum in English