EXIT Festival, better known as the Best Major European Festival, took place once again on the magical Petrovaradin Fortress from the 7th to the 10th of July. All 4 days together gathered up 195,000 visitors from all around the world, with the last day counting the record number of 55 000 visitors flooding the fortress. The 15 stages were echoing the sounds of: David Guetta, Ellie Goulding, Bastille, Wiz Khalifa, The Prodigy and so many more hit makers. This was my first year visiting the festival.
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Before the show could start I had to switch my money for the EXIT credit card, the only way of payment on the festival. Before the bridge that leads to the fortress, you can find a bunch of young people ‘pre-gaming’ on the river bank. It was an amazing place to meet new people before the raving starts inside of the fortress. On my way to the fortress I encountered a lot of young promoters offering you cheap honey or plum rakia (local alcoholic drink).
Then I made it to the fortress and was dazzled by the amount of people and the decorations around me. My four day adventure started and there were so many places to explore: 15 stages, seven chill zones, a planetarium, free zip line, etc.
The most important stages were of course the Main Stage and the Dance Arena:
Main stage
The main stage is huge and at times it was filled with more than 30 000 people. The first day, this stage hosted Bastille. The boys did an amazing job promoting their new album and moving the audience with the familiar hits such as ‘Pompeii’, ‘Of The Night’ and ‘Things We Lost In Fire’. The same day just after the English band performed Ellie Goulding. Her sound didn’t fully fit in the festival, but the crowd still filled up the stage to hear one of the biggest pop queens today. The second day hosted one of the biggest stars of electro music- David Guetta. It’s enough to say that this performer is still not too old to bring it up harder than the young folks. However, I think that he’s the only DJ who doesn’t perform some of his hits in order to play the less famous hits of the other musicians. The third day was reserved for The Vaccines, who were unfortunately less familiar to the domestic audience. Finally the fourth day featured Wiz Khalifa and The Prodigy. These artists drew the biggest number of people to the main stage. Wiz was amazing, providing the big joint balloons to the audience and spilling champagne over the crowd. He finished the concert with the planetary hit ‘See you again’ and the audience sang into the night unanimously. The big change in the music style followed. After the chill sounds of the American rapper, it was time for the pure rave of The Prodigy. The band already declared that the EXIT is their favorite festival in the world. Therefore I wasn’t that surprised when I realized that so many people in the audience had The Prodigy tattoos, or that when (by accident) I found myself in the crowd I was almost vandalized by the mosh pits around me, until I got to the end of the crowd. The concert itself was a quite traumatic experience for me, but the rest of the crowd absolutely loved it. Hats off to The Prodigy for the event.
Dance Arena
Dance arena is probably one of the best and the most unique dance stages out there. This is where the fortress setting really comes handy because the arena is in a pit which has the most amazing sound isolation. It’s situated just behind the main stage, but the sound never mixes. It’s loud, wild and sweaty. This year, to my surprise, the performance of Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike might have been the best performance on this stage. Their repertoire went from the wild dance hits to the soft sounds of Sam Smith’s ‘Stay With me’. Apart from their amazing performance during the first night, the third night of the festival was reserved for this stage. Unfortunately for the fans Robin Schulz had to cancel, because of the health problems. However, he was replaced by none other than Oliver Heldens. This Dutch DJ, alongside the sensation Nicky Romero and Feder lit the third night of the festival and entertained the overflowing arena.
Honorable mentions
Fusion stage had amazing performers as well which presented more of the alternative world scene.
Latino stage featured dancers showing different dance moves, which the audience had to repeat.
AS FM stage was full until the late morning hours featuring the various DJs.
Silent disco was maybe my favorite stage. It was well organized, the sound was amazing and the DJs were really funny.
This all being said, EXIT festival was one of a kind adventure. No wonder that both Vague and CNN included it in their top 10 festivals in the world! The downside of the event would be that because of so many people, it was hard to move from stage to stage and another one is that even the one day tickets were sold out by the last day.
On the other hand, the drinks were cheap (beer under two Euros), the fortress is beautiful and the adventure doesn't end when EXIT does, because the EXIT supported ‘Sea Dance Festival’ begins on the Jaz beach of Montenegro few days after and features Skrillex, Hurts and The Lost Frequencies.
There seems to be only one question unanswered: How do you actually find the place where you can exit the festival (since EXIT is written everywhere). This one I’m leaving for you to discover when you come to this hot summer event. Get your tickets on time and the magical fortress will be waiting.
