After the historic victory of the students, our biggest festival in an emotional post on its Instagram account with great joy confirms the news that everyone has been waiting for - EXIT IS COMING HOME!
"We have always said that EXIT will return when freedom returns to our country - and thanks to the courage, determination and incredible perseverance of Serbian students, that moment has finally come! Our original plan was to return in 2028, because the big return we envision requires at least 18 months of preparation."
But you showered us with so much love! Thousands of amazing emails, messages, comments and massive media attention have clearly shown us one thing - you just can't wait that long, and neither can we!
That's why, although the big return of the EXIT festival is planned for 2028, already next July we are gathering again at the Fortress to celebrate together FREEDOM, UNITY AND LOVE with a special EXIT experience that we will soon reveal!” - it is stated in the publication.
We would like to remind you that last year EXIT was forced to suspend its performances in Serbia due to political, security and financial pressures due to student support.
"When in July, on the days when EXIT was traditionally supposed to take place, we together with the students hung the banners 'STUDENTS WIN' and 'NEXT YEAR AT THE FORTRESS' on the Novi Sad's Fortress, we believed with all our hearts that freedom was coming. But none of us knew if it would arrive fast enough for those words to become a reality already next year," said Dušan Kovačević, founder and director of the EXIT festival, and added:
"The elections were not even called then, the shutdown of the last independent media was announced, and my own brother was still in detention, which represented another form of pressure on me and EXIT to stop supporting the students. But instead of breaking us, all those pressures only made us more determined to do our best in this decisive fight for our country. Today, EXIT is returning home, and the students have shown that there is no force stronger than a people determined to live in freedom!"
EXIT was the only major festival that supported student protests last year. At the so far last edition, numerous domestic performers from the blacklists, who got there after supporting the students, played, while the Italian singer Gala, author of the protest anthem "Freed from Desire", opened the festival together with the students on the main stage.
After a year in which EXIT, three-time winner of the award for the Best European Festival, which brought more than 300 million euros to the Serbian economy, transferred its energy all over the world, including the first ever real festival near the pyramids of Giza, it is time to return to where it all began.
NEXT YEAR AT THE FORTRESS!
