Exit 2010

For those of you who don't know, EXIT is a music festival that has been taking place in Novi Sad, Serbia every summer since 2000. This year's festival starts tonight and tonight also happens to be the night that MIKA (!!), one of the headliners, is performing. I thought, Mika is in Serbia...I have to see him! but unfortunately I have no way to get there and no place to stay. I also found out that he performs at midnight, so there would be no possible way of getting back to Belgrade after his gig. I've always been pretty optimistic about things like this, but I have to face the fact that I will not be seeing Mika in Serbia anytime soon.

Anyway, I am blogging about EXIT tonight because it is the opening day and I think it is an under-publicized festival. According to Wikipedia (I really don't think that people would waste their time changing entries into false information!), EXIT was started by three college students in 2000 as a protest against oppression under Slobodan Milosevic's regime (I'm not going to get into the politics, they're really not my forte). EXIT takes place in Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad along the world-famous Danube River.


Over the years, this seemingly humble project began attracted international stars and has earned deserving accolades. Performers have included Iggy and the Stooges, Goldfrapp, Peaches, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Billy Idol, the Pet Shop Boys, HIM, The Scissor Sisters, Snoop Dogg, Gogol Bordello, Gossip, the Sex Pistols, Lily Allen, and the Artic Monkeys. This year's headliners are Mika, Missy Elliot, LCD Soundsystem, the Chemical brothers, and Placebo. The thing that suprised me was that the festival doesn't start until 8 PM and then the headliners perform at midnight and the festivities keep going until about 6 or 7 AM. I understand the whole rock and roll lifestyle, but wouldn't you just want some sleep by that point in the morning? I mean, I'm up at 6:45 AM on a weekday, but that's to go to school.
Anyways, as I mentioned, EXIT has received some awards during its existence. The most significant title was given in 2007, when the UK Festival Awards decreed EXIT the Best European Festival. This title was voted on by regular people: music lovers, festival go-ers and EXIT was chosen amongst 10 other festivals on the continent!
So, hopefully I taught you about a music festival (that isn't Glastonbury) and hopefully brought some more tourists into Serbia! You can't blame me; I learn something new about my homeland every day!

I almost forgot to mention Belgrade's Beer Fest. It is completely free and all of the money raised last time (I believe...don't quote me on this one) went into buying recycling bins for schools around the city. I'll have more about that later.

PS. Mika's on in half an hour!

None of the photos in this post were mine...click on them for their sources!