Features
Million Dollar Exit
Serbia’s award-winning Exit Festival has contributed euro 100 million ($137 million) to the local economy of Novi Sad, according to festival director Dusan Kovacevic.
Photo: Eurosonic-Noorderslag
Exit Festival directors Dusan Kovacevic and Ivan Milivojev take center stage as they pick up the best European major festival award in Groningen, The Netherlands, Jan. 15.
That’s the total sum the festival has brought in since Kovacevic, Bojan Boškovic and Ivan Milivojev founded the event in 2000.
It started on the university park in Novi Sad as a student movement fighting for democracy and freedom in Serbia and the Balkans, but after one year moved to its current site at the Petrovaradin fortress.
Kovacevic’s claims about the festival’s value to Serbian tourism came at a reception held in the government offices in Belgrade Jan. 20.
“Exit Festival is producing good publicity and positive effects for the Serbian economy and it shows that creativity, inventiveness and entrepreneurial spirit can make a major contribution to the country,” said Serbian first deputy prime minister Aleksandar Vucic.
This year’s Exit Festival (July 10-13) has confirmed Skrillex, Rudimental, Dub FX, and Koven.