Exit festival pulls out of Serbia after backing student protests

One of the biggest music festivals in Europe withdrew from Serbia with organizers accusing “anti -democratic pressures”.

The exit festival will hold its 25th anniversary in the country between July 10 and 13, but said that “will be the last to take place” there.

The organizers say that the Serbian authorities have reduced government funding for the event and that some sponsors have been “forced to withdraw under pressure from the state”.

They say that this concerns the festival support for a Anti-corruption protest movement led by students in Serbia.

Provincial officials of the culture secretariat rejected allegations, blaming financial pressures to be “unable to provide support”.

Keeping at the Petrovaradin fortress in the second city in Serbia, Novi Sad, the festival attracted 200,000 visitors last year.

Exit has its roots in the pro-democracy protest movement which finally led to the defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in the presidential elections of Yugoslavia in 2000.

This tradition of activists continued, each year, given a theme, ranging from “Stop Human Trafficking” to “Loud and Queer”.

After the disaster last November at Novi Sad station – where 16 people died when a concrete canopy collapsed – the students launched demonstrations, and the festival offered them support.

This went from membership of students in protest to the supply of “food, sleeping bags and other necessities” and publish messages of support on social networks and the website of the exit.

The founder Dusan Kovacevic says that this has now reached a heavy financial cost for the festival, but that “freedom has no price”.

In a declaration on the decision To withdraw from Serbia after 25 years, he calls on people to remember the exit “not for his end, but for his unity. For love. For freedom”.

We do not know if the festival will seek to move to another country, and if so, where.

Over the years, the acts of the titles have included the white scratches, the arctic monkeys and the remedy.

Next month, the Prodigy returns for his sixth appearance at the festival, alongside the sex pistols featuring Frank Carter and French DJ and producer DJ Snake.

Exit won two prizes from the European Festival of the Year and has become one of the biggest musical events of several days on the continent.

Daryl Fidelak, who manages a label based in Belgrade, says that the festival had a huge impact on the creative scene of Serbia.

“He opened the eyes of the international public, bringing many foreigners who could have had a negative impression – if not – of Serbia,” he said.

“The exit helped Serbia go to a good place with music and live culture, causing many other festivals, bookers and events.”