State of EXIT

Now that was a festival!
EXIT - 4 days of music in an old Fortress overlooking Novi Sad in northern Serbia, practically in the backyard for those of us working in Kosovo, was an awesome way to spend a summer weekend.
In fact it was 4 nights, with the bands not starting each day till around 7pm and DJs played till 8am, which left days free to sleep in, hang by the riverside, walk around Novi Sad and regroup. We also made the excellent decision to rent a room in an apartment rather than camp out, which meant plenty of quiet, comfortable and cool rest was possible with access to a bathroom and kitchen - and all closer to the fest than the festival camp area.

Now 6 hours in a clunky old bus meant it didn't exactly feel like it was in the backyard, but the travel was worth it. I arrived late on Thursday and managed to catch the end of The Prodigy's set, which sounded amazing and the atmosphere was electric, it seems they still got it. Some fireworks followed to officially launch the festival then Groove Armada hit the stage and had even our died-in-the-wool rocker friend dancing along.

Highlights would have to be a very cool Beastie Boys set with loads of old-school tunes including Egg Raid on Mojo and No Sleep till Brooklyn as well as quite a few of the new instrumental jams, Basement Jaxx impressed me despite not knowing much of their set and had me dancing like a fool and unusual for me, I also enjoyed dancing till dawn to a set by the dj Roger Sanchez.

I was sceptical as to whether CSS would translate to a main festival stage, after seeing them earlier in the year at a small venue in Sydney with a bad sound mix... but they pulled it off, sounded fantastic and were lots of fun. I especially loved the singer stripping off several layers of dodgy jumpsuits and having the attitude to make it seem cool.

Lauryn Hill seemed to pull some kind of diva stunt, going on late and playing past the timeslot, delaying Basement Jaxx for over an hour, which did not impress the fans... but she played some Fugees towards the end when we wandered over which somehow made up to it.

There were loads of stages, but just the one main stage, which made it easy to catch the extended sets of the major acts. None of those paltry 45 minute sets here!

Everyone was friendly (well, almost everyone), the weather was perfect, despite the huge crowds there was never a problem to get where we wanted to go (except to get beer during a main act set) and to top it off it was cheap!

There were messages of peace and ending discrimination, with many organisations granted stalls and space on site, harking back to the original intentions of the first EXIT festival in 2000 to bring youth together and move past the period of war in the former Yugoslavia.

While there is still much tension surrounding Kosovo, it was heartening to know that several hundred kosovars travelled from Pristina to the festival to enjoy it alongside people from all over former Yugoslavia and the world.