This year’s edition to be last held in country after Belgrade withholds funding over support of anti-corruption activists
One of Europe’s largest music festivals will no longer be held in Serbia and could go “into exile” in Germany or a neighbouring Balkan state after Belgrade withheld funding over its support of the country’s anti-corruption student protesters.
Exit festival, which is held every July in a medieval bastion fortress in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, was founded in 2000 by student activists from the protest movement that helped topple Slobodan Milošević. Affordable ticket prices and starry lineups mean it has acquired a reputation as Europe’s premier music event with a social conscience, with 210,000 people from more than 80 countries attending in 2024.
On Friday, however, Exit’s organisers announced that its 25th anniversary edition from 10 to 13 July this year “will be the last to take place” in Serbia, citing “undemocratic pressures” from the government of the president, Aleksandar Vučić.
Novi Sad has emerged as the hub of the protests that have swept the Balkan state since a concrete canopy collapsed on to a busy pavement at the city’s central station last year, killing 14 people. On its social media channels, Exit has endorsed the demands of student protesters, calling for the resignation of the responsible minister and a full investigation into the disaster.
