Features
Revolution Through Evolution: EXIT Festival Is Building Bridges
Several festivals in the Balkans are the creative manifestations of a youth rebelling against dictatorship. Revolution Festival launched in 2015 in Timisoara, where the Romanian revolution of 1989 started. It was the first city in the country to declare itself Communist-free. The festival was realized with the help of the team at EXIT, which itself began as a student protest against the cruel regime of Slobodan Miloševic and played its part in bringing him down in Serbia’s general election of 2000.
That revolutionary spirit never left EXIT founder and CEO Dusan Kovacevic, who said, “the reason I am doing the events is to mobilize new generations for positive causes. And – through events like ADA Divine Awakening, which I’m very proud of – to help them grow personally, spread consciousness, and share support. We advocate for a New Earth. We need to change this old matrix of wars, greed and environmental destruction, and create new forms of communication between each other. And I believe there are enough strong players in the world, especially in the arts world, but also beyond, who are already there, in terms of their consciousness, the way they live their lives, and behave.”
EXIT turns 25 next year, according to Kovacevic, so it’s a good time to ask “what we want the future to look like? EXIT started as a youth movement for peace and freedom in Serbia and the Balkans. Woodstock, and other festivals started similarly, but it’s not the case anymore. With almost 90% of major festivals now being part of corporations, and investment funds, I really see the independence of EXIT, and being a player for positive change, as our key strength – and as our purpose not just in the festival world, but in society.”
EXIT’s 25th edition will mark the return of the State of EXIT, the festival’s theme in 2003. Every visitor received passports back then, a gimmick that’ll return in 2025, along with some of the best acts in the event’s history, and newcomers, some of which may be pooled from EXIT’s own talent agency opened last year.
2025 will also see the launch of Bridge, a conference combining music and tech, “based on our philosophy that live experiences are not replaceable, and that digital addiction is a real issue,” Kovacevic explained, and emphasized, “we are not advocating against
tech, as we feel it can be very useful for the industry. What we advocate is the safe use of it. The name Bridge has a lot of symbolic meaning, keeping in mind that we are a Serbian brand in Croatia, two of the countries with the biggest tensions in the past. It’s also a tribute to Yugoslavia’s only Nobel Prize winner for literature Ivo Andric, for the book ‘The Bridge on the Drina’. We want to build bridges for peace, remembering the many artists in war-stricken or conflict regions.”
The Bridge conference will be launched with Sea Star, another festival in the EXIT family, taking place May 22-25 in Umag, Croatia – a beautiful seaside town with amazing food, bordering Slovenia, and Italy. “It marks our summer opening, said Kovacevic, who also touched on the other events in the EXIT universe: “We’re hopeful for the return of the Sea Dance Festival, after receiving positive signals from the Montenegro government. It would mark the 10 year anniversary of receiving the best medium size festival title at the European Festival Awards for the first edition in 2014. ADA Divine Awakening will return to Montenegro in September, with our strongest lineup yet, and both Sea Star and No Sleep Festival are doing great. We also have some big ideas for projects with a social cause, some incredible things potentially cooking, but it’s really too early to speak about it. But we’ll be partnering with some amazing organizations to send a message about the importance of environmental protection.”
The celebrations of EXIT’s 25th anniversary officially kick off this October at Amsterdam Dance Event, where, aside from hosting the opening party, a documentary on EXIT’s world-renowned Dance Arena will be released. And Kovacevic concluded, “We’re also finishing up a documentary on being the first major festival after the pandemic, all original footage from back then, hoping to publish that early next year. A lot of plans, but we are really focused.”