Exit festival pulls out of Serbia after backing student protests

One of Europe’s largest music festivals is pulling out of Serbia with organisers blaming “undemocratic pressures”.

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

Organisers say Serbian authorities have cut off government funding for the event and some sponsors have been “forced to withdraw under state pressure”.

They say this relates to the festival’s support for an ongoing student-led anti-corruption protest movement in Serbia.

Provincial officials at the culture secretariat have rejected the allegations, blaming financial pressures for being “unable to provide support”.

Held at Petrovaradin Fortress in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, the festival attracted 200,000 visitors last year.

Exit 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.

That activist tradition has continued, with each year given a theme, ranging from “Stop Human Trafficking” to “Loud and Queer”.

Following last November’s disaster at Novi Sad railway station – where 16 people died when a concrete canopy collapsed – students launched protests, and the festival offered its support to them.

This ranged from joining students on protest marches to providing “food, sleeping bags, and other necessities” and publishing messages of support on social media and Exit’s website.

Founder Dusan Kovacevic says this has now come at a heavy financial cost for the festival, but that “freedom has no price”.

In a statement about the decision to pull out of Serbia after 25 years, he calls for people to remember Exit “not for its end, but for its unity. For love. For freedom”.

It is unclear whether the festival will seek to relocate to a different country, and if so where.

Headline acts over the years have included The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys and The Cure.

Next month, The Prodigy are returning for their sixth appearance at the festival, alongside The Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter and French DJ and producer DJ Snake.

Exit has won two European festival of the year awards and grown to become one of the continent’s largest multi-day music events.

Daryl Fidelak, who runs a Belgrade-based record label, says the festival has had an immense impact on Serbia’s creative scene.

“It’s opened the eyes of the international audience, bringing lots of foreigners who might have had a negative – or even no – impression of Serbia,” he says.

“Exit has helped Serbia get to a good place with live music and culture, spawning a lot of other festivals, bookers and events.”