EXIT Festival at the Petrovaradin Fortress

ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE

EXIT’s story is unique in European festival culture. It began in the summer of 2000 — the “Zero Edition” — as a student movement for democracy and freedom in Milošević’s Serbia: a festival of resistance staged across Novi Sad’s University Park, running for nearly 100 days and drawing over 200,000 people in the months before the September 2000 elections that toppled the regime. In 2001 the festival crossed the Danube to the Petrovaradin Fortress, its home ever since, and grew into one of Europe’s major festivals: more than 1,000 artists play across 40+ stages and zones each July, headliners from Massive Attack and The White Stripes to today’s arena acts. The awards followed — Best Overseas Festival at the UK Festival Awards (2007) and Best Major Festival at the European Festival Awards twice (2013 and 2017), with CNN ranking it among the world’s top five festivals. Its 20th anniversary edition in 2021 was the first major European festival held after the pandemic shut the continent’s stages, drawing some 180,000 visitors across four days. The festival’s social mission never left: the EXIT Foundation runs activism and environmental programmes year-round. In 2025 the festival marked its 25th anniversary — though visitors should note that no traditional Novi Sad edition is scheduled for 2026 (the organisers cite political pressure after their support for the student protests); check the current status before planning a festival trip.