Memories of a four day bender
By Burton Taylor
Lance Writer
July 13, 2010
 Four days, 300 acts, 20 stages, and 150,000 people. These are the mind-boggling statistics for the Exit Festival.
California has Coachella, England has Glastonbury, and Eastern Europe has Exit. Every year, hundreds of thousands flock to beautiful and majestic Petrovaradin Fortress on the shore of the Danube River in Novi Sad, Serbia, to take in a half week of music at Exit Festival.
The festival was first organized by local student unions in 2000, and was, in part, a critique of the Milosevic regime. At first, the festival was a marathon lasting over a week, consisting of music, revelry, and political comment. Today, the festival is now a relatively lean half week of music with a little political dimension apparent to the dozens of thousands of concert goers. What has not been reduced was the variety of music on tap. There is, just to name a few, a Reggae stage, a Latino stage, the amphitheatre-like Dance Arena, that to cater any and to all music tastes.
The Fortress itself is undoubtedly the most impressive venue I have attended for either a festival or concert. Originally built to safeguard the region from Turkish invaders in the 17th Century, today the fortress defends its denizens from boredom for four days each year. Composed of dozens of walkways, tunnels, and terraces, it is the Hogwarts of venues. The picaresque view of the Danube is simply icing on the top.
There was great acclaim for the headline shows by Mika and Missy Eliot. However, many fans I spoke to at the concert offered mixed overall reactions to festival. Martin, from Skopje, Macedonia, said that although he a great time this year, he did wish there was “a better line up [of artists] than this.”
Anica, a student from Belgrade, expressed some concern that seemed to be fewer people in attendance this year. Also, although she loved the “positive vibe” at the festival, there was “more energy” at last year’s festival. And finally, in a refrain known to concert goers the world over, she complained the prices were too high for things such as food and drink. Despite these gripes about this year’s offerings, she added that she thought Exit offered to the rest of Europe an amazing face of the future of Serbia.
This somewhat dim view of this year’s Exit may very well be a minor road bump in the festival’s history and may have more to do with external factors than to the quality of the festival itself. The region has not escaped the global economic downturn, and there can be little doubt that this has affected attendance and the line-up this year. Additionally, last year’s Exit was the 10th anniversary and organizers pulled out all the stops to bring a stellar line of talent to celebrate the occasion. In this context, it may not be surprising that some glum comparisons were noted.
This year’s most anticipated artist was the David Guetta, the Grammy award-winning French house DJ and producer whose electro-pop remixes of the likes of Estelle and Akon are heard on dance floors from Detroit to Delhi. When he finally took the stage well past 4 a.m., Guetta hypnotized the audience with his signature sound until the literal dawn of day.
My experience as a first time Exit Festival attendee was nothing short of magical from the legendary tent city, to the savory traditional Serbian food, to the truly international representation from the audience and performers alike.
The organizers hail the concert as the “State of Exit,” punning on the psychological and national meanings of the word “state.” The festival wonderfully marries the two. Whatever happened in the past or continues in the nations’ of the attendees, for the four days of Exit, at least, it feels like we’re all brothers and sisters. In a region that has been driven by bloody conflict throughout the 20th Century, in all its diversity, euphoria, and optimism, Exit’s greatest gift, perhaps, is that offers us a vision for the Balkans in the 21st.
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