Exit Festival will go ahead in 2021 – organisers

Serbia’s Exit Festival will be held according to plan in July 2021, despite the cancellation of Glastonbury Festival and uncertainty over the festival summer elsewhere in Europe, organisers have said.

Dušan Kovačević, the festival’s founder, says he remains “optimistic” about celebrating Exit’s delayed 20th anniversary on 8–11 July, citing Serbia’s successful vaccination programme and the high proportion of the population who already have Covid-19 antibodies. Serbia is currently vaccinating around a million people, or 15% of its population, every month, and health experts say at least 40% of Serbs are likely already immune to the disease.

Exit was famously one of the last festivals to cancel last year, though it did still have a live audience for its hybrid (part-physical, part-livestreamed) Life Stream event.

Artists performing at Exit 2021, many of whom are rolled over from last year, include David Guetta, Tyga, DJ Snake, Eric Prydz and Four Tet, Nina Kraviz, Paul Kalkbrenner and Metronomy, with more still to be announced.

“The safety of all our visitors, artists and staff is of course a priority,”

“We are very optimistic about the possibility of celebrating Exit’s jubilee in 2021,” comments Kovačević. Given what we have all been through in the past year, the euphoria at this year’s festival can only be compared to the explosion of positive energy at the first international Exit in 2001, which occurred after a decade of isolation and conflict in the Balkans during the 1990s. It was this release of huge repressed energy 20 years ago that led to the creation of the legend of Exit as a festival with the most exciting atmosphere, where performers have some of the best performances in their careers.”

Other festivals to have already indicated they will push ahead this summer include Frontier Festival in the Netherlands and Albania’s Unum Festival, the latter of which will make use of mass testing for Covid-19.

“The safety of all our visitors, artists and staff is of course a priority,” adds Kovačević, who says Life Stream proved it is possible “to host a Covid-secure event with health and safety measures at the highest level.”

Exit 20 takes place 8–11 July 2021 at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad. Tickets start at €109 for a four-day pass.

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