EXIT Festival @ Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, Serbia – 10th – 13th July 2008
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Save a handful of unique, genuinely interesting festivals, we here in the UK rarely get more than a load of tents in a field when it comes to our big events. Sure, we’ve got some cracking festivals and a myriad of events you could go to and have an unforgettable time at – but when you search abroad, you start to realise just how mindblowing the whole festival experience can be. Location is obviously paramount, and few are better poised from the off than EXIT Festival – chosen in 2007 by the UK Festival Awards and the Yourope association of the continents 40 biggest festivals as Europe’s best festival.
Serbia these days is a far cry from the war torn nomansland of years gone by – even if it is still licking its wounds in various social and political manifestations – and the chilled out university town of Novi Sad, home to EXIT, is a lovely, highly unassuming place for such a celebration of music and debauchery. Indeed, as it so often is with political demonstrations throughout history, it was 3 local students back in 2000 as a demonstration of sorts against the rule of then-dicator Slobodan Milosevic. The festival was strongly linked to Otpor!, the Yugoslavian youth movement that is widely credited with overthrowing Milosevic in 2000. The first EXIT took place in the grounds of the university, and lasted for 100 days – finishing just days before the historic elections which led to the overthrowing of the dictator. The slogan of the festival was: "EXIT out of ten years of madness"
But this wasn’t an out-and-out, vocal protest by the youth of Serbia – due to fear of repression, the political activism of the festival had to be disguised. It was a more subtle protest – a way of saying “fuck you, we’re young and want to have fun and you can’t stop us” – although it’s said that the anti-Milosevic message was clear to all in attendance. People may bemoan the fact that it’s now become a corporate-sponsored entity, but really, who cares? That’s life. Everyone’s got to make a living. Thank god that it no longer has to be a political protest against a cruel dictator. And if it means cheaper beer for all of us, then even better...
EXIT Festival has taken place in the Petrovaradin Fortress since 2001; a truly stunning location whose life as a fortified settlement dates back to the BC era, and whose major foundations were laid back in the 13th century. It’s situated on the River Danube, looking out onto the main half of the city and the university grounds that first played host to EXIT. All of a sudden a big farm near a load of old stones doesn’t seem quite as appealing.
Thursday
After settling into the comfort of our classy apartment, we head over to the festival site to get stuck in. Apartment you say? Well there’s camping available across the bridge from the fortress, by the university, but we’re not really up for trying to sleep in 30+ Celsius heat and not being able to have a proper wash afterwards. Call us weak, but for €25 a night, a modern flat arranged through an EXIT messageboard with air-con and all the rest is very necessary.
Talking to locals and old-hands, it’s widely agreed that it’s not really as big a line-up this year (last year featured The Prodigy, Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Lauryn Hill, Danny Tenaglia and Eric Prydz were just a few of the headliners last year). But there’s still plenty of big names to see, and everything from house to heavy metal to techno to punk to dubstep to reggae to gypsy folk to indie to drum ‘n’ bass to breaks to hip-hop on offer. After a stunning Red Arrow style plane display over the fortress, the festival begins, and first on our agenda are N*E*R*D on the main stage, ushered in by a mesmerising fireworks display. This main arena isn’t nearly as big as we were expecting – its long and wide layout occasionally making for difficult navigation over the course of the weekend – but big enough for most of the acts over the weekend. Pharrell gives an incredibly energetic performance, bouncing around on stage like rubber band ball and generally looking ridiculously cool – but it seems their live sound is a bit too...well, almost heavy metal for some of the crowd, who seem more drawn to his hip-hop material. Still, the dark and dirty Lapdance sounds great, as does set-closer She Wants To Move, and the calibre of his musicians (including two immense drummers) is breathtaking.
Over to the infamous Dance Arena to get properly stuck in, but not before we check out the intimate Urban Bug stage en route – a small stage in amongst a load of trees, banked by a steep incline to one side and covered in UV lighting and décor. The local DJs bosh out filthy, hard-grooving minimal techno, and it feels like we’ve stumbled across some kind of secret forest raving society. Next on the agenda is getting a drink – which proves to be slightly more complicated than expected. There’s a drink tokens system – but instead of the usual currency system whereby different drinks cost a different amount of tokens, you get given different coins with logos on them to represent different drinks. Oh and you can only buy beer or wine if you want alcohol – no spirits. This ends up being pretty annoying, but I’m sure they have their reasons. And at £1.40 a pint you can’t complain too much...unless you hate beer.
To the cavernous Dance Arena we go, and it’s every bit as epic as we’ve been told. It’s accessed by a badly-lit pathway running alongside a rather steep slope (and consequential drop), and then a huge wood and metal staircase leading down into the dancefloor – which is a 200-odd metre long moat. The huge stage stands at one side of the moat, and on the other side a ramp leads up to a plateau at the bottom of a steep hill – from the top of which incredible views are afforded.
Phonica Records’ Heidi is warming up, playing what must be one of the gigs of her life, dishing out chunky house grooves like favourite of Luciano, The MD X-Spress’ God Made Me Phunky, in anticipation of Matthew Dear doing his Audio thang. We take a quick excursion through a tunnel at ground level at the bottom of the hill to check out the Happynovisad stage – but the mix of brutal techno and the claustrophobic feel of the area doesn’t make us feel quite as the name should imply. Oh and it should be mentioned at this point - pretty much all of the 16 odd stages are outdoors. God bless this Serbian weather.
Once Audion gets going, we’re pretty much hooked in the Dance Arena for the night. A combination of the fact that it’s quite simply breathtaking (with a superb soundsystem, lighting and visuals) and the fact that it’s a bit of a mission to get through the crowds and go anywhere else means that we have little desire to move from our designated spot on the plateau, looking down on the already enormous throng down below. Audion builds his set up slowly but surely with plenty of his quirky, funky minimal techno vibes – the obligatory Mouth To Mouth pushing the crowd up a gear in anticipation of a certain Sven Väth.
I’ve only seen Mr. V play once before, and his sets and CDs that I’ve listened to have veered from the incredible to the below par – and others seem to agree that he can be a bit hit and miss. Tonight however, with an epic setting and 3 hours to play around with, there was only really one way things were going to pan out. Aside from occasional dips into too-deep territories in his third hour, it’s a spellbinding performance – kicking off with rolling techno from Minilogue’s Jamaica, moving into hyperactive electro filth in Tim Deluxe's remix of Alter Ego’s monstrous Why Not?, blasts of sheer euphoria like Joris Voorn’s remix of Robert Babicz’s Striped Flower, and later into heady, dreamy, hypnotic techno. He touches on all sorts of different textures, teasing us and weaving endless peaks and troughs into his set – and the crowd are giving it just as much energy as he is. The sun rises from the far side of the arena before Sven finishes his set at 5AM, fast basking this vast arena in glorious, burning hot sunshine. It’s an incredible sight to behold.
François K steps up next with a perfectly chosen antidote to Sven’s druggy darkness, dishing out a set full of euphoric classics to match the near-narcotic influence of the sunshine. Kicking off with Laurent Garnier’s Man With The Red Face doesn’t leave much room for manoeuvre, but the reaction it evokes is huge, and following up with classics like Hardfloor’s Aceperience, and seemingly out of nowhere Sylvester’s hi-nrg anthem You Make Me Feel, it’s impossible not to be beaming from ear to ear. Unless you’re like the ex-MTV Serbia VJ we spoke to the next night, who informed us that his set was “bullshit” and that Thursday is supposed to be techno night at EXIT. Ah well, can’t please them all.
A surprising choice to close the arena is Zabiela-affiliate Kos, who very much steps up to the task at hand with an incredible set full of filthy bass, chunky tech grooves and epic riffage like Smith & Selway’s naughty remix of Mark Brown’s New Heights – although the crowd has majorly thinned out by this point. Well done that man anyways.
Friday
After soaking up the rays on the beach that’s located next to the campsite and opposite the fortress (where boats pump out tunes and serve drinks, and at the far end a reggae soundsystem blasts out sunny tunes), it’s back in for round 2. We investigate the opposite end of the fortress, where we find a maze of tunnels, moats, cobble streets and loads more great music. There’s even a luxury hotel here. We stumble across a breakdancing stage with some great performances from young Serbs, and a remarkably good soundtrack of breaks, electro and hip-hop mash-ups with tons of acapellas and scratching from 3 DJs (who we can’t name as the line-up for this stage wasn’t provided). We then move next door to the Positive Vibration Reggae stage, where one of our local hosts and flatowners Butchaa is on mic duties for Irie Revolution Sound System’s set. He’s not given much chance to show his superb flow as it’s pretty much back-to-back vocal tracks, but the chilled, large circular arena is a breath of fresh air and a world away from the manicness over the other side of the festival.
By the time we reach the Dance Arena, Tiga is taking the place to pieces with party techno, full-on acid house, and of course a spinetingling sing-a-long moment in I Know You Gonna Want Me. As usual, he completely nails it. Soulwax are their usual faultless selves, but we’re interested to see how Skream & Benga fair over on the main stage – which culminates in bass heavy music every night after the various bands have finished playing. Unfortunately their set lacks imagination, churning out too many of the same old dubstep tunes that we lucky Londoners have been spoilt with for the past year, with little in the way of inspiring mixing. Matters are made worse by the fact that the soundsystem is not blasting out nearly as much bass or volume as it should be – and D’n’B MC Stamina’s flows just sound odd in this musical context.
We’ve had a good chance to assess the crowd by now, and it seems to be not far off 50% British (although official figures state it’s lower than that). While this isn’t necessarily a problem, it becomes one when you’ve got incredibly annoying over-enthusiastic rejects from Channel4’s Skins jumping into you, and foul-mouthed English idiots mouthing off at locals in pointless altercations (“I don’t care where the fuck you’re from, I’m from England” shouts some classy piece of work as we leave the festival). What can you do though eh? The locals are all bloody lovely.
Saturday
A full to bursting Main Stage greets French-Spanish reggae/ska maverick Manu Chao, and it’s a real task to get anywhere with a good vantage point. We sneak in round the side at the front and witness his energy-packed show, his fellow musicians giving it their all as the cosmopolitan crowd moshes hard to the fast-paced ska, singing along enthusiastically to near every word. After half an hour we decamp to the Dance Arena, safe in the knowledge that we’ll be seeing him at Lovebox in London the following weekend – although we’re sure the crowd won’t be quite as up for it.
West Coast American house bod Miguel Migs is a strange choice to get the night going, his funky but classy house beats clearly lost on many. It’s nice summery music as far as we’re concerned, and an interesting change to the harder fare that’s on offer for most of the rest of the weekend. It’s chill-out kings Kruder & Dorfmeister who everyone’s talking about tonight – and no-one seems to be able to anticipate what they’ll play in this peak time slot. As it happens, there’s barely anything recognisable as their “usual” sound – instead its big room house and electro at first from the likes of Pryda and the hideous vocal version of Bodyrox’s Yeah Yeah, and by the end of their 3 hours, hypnotic Villalobos-style techno. It’s the right kind of music for this time and place without a doubt, and generally of a very high quality – but it’s somehow disappointing that you can’t even tell it’s Kruder & Dorfmeister. It seems a bit pointless really – why not just book someone who is made for this setting rather than letting down a lot of people with an act who are not being their usual selves?
In any case, Axwell dispels any doubts of bad bookings with his epic early morning selection with everything from Robin S’ Show Me Love to a delicious re-rub of Three Drives’ Greece 2000 making an appearance in his none-more-euphoric, classic-filled show-stopper of a set. As one punter puts it “it was shit, but fucking amazing”, succinctly summing up his choice of often cheesy, but very aptly-chosen tracks. Meanwhile High Contrast & MC Wrec deliver an inspirational set on the main stage, brimming over with euphoric riffs and heartwarming basslines, with his bootlegs of White Stripes’ Blue Orchid and a stunning remix of Eric Prydz’s Pjanoo littered amongst his own classics like If We Ever. Superb.
We head back to Butchaa’s flat to rest our weary limbs on the balcony, looking straight ahead at the fortress. We can hear Tom Novy blasting it out on the Dance Arena almost note for note, until 9AM. Awesome. Must be pretty shit if you live in Novi Sad and don’t like pounding dance music though.
Sunday
The final day, and the crowd is noticeably drained from the last 3 nights of mayhem, and things take a while longer to get going. In our fragile state we avoid the hard rock and punk of the main stage (not really that interested in seeing a hugely contrived and painfully self-contradicting Sex Pistols embarrassingly churn out their hits of yesteryear), and plant ourselves in the Dance Arena. This may be sounding monotonous to you, but once you’ve witnessed it – you’ll understand why nothing else quite compares.
The cold emotion of Claude VonStroke’s sound doesn’t quite work in this huge arena – his quirky, twisted sound better suited to dark sweaty rooms – and his set time has been badly chosen, preceding Ben Watt. It’s a case of too much too soon, and when the Buzzin’ Fly man takes over, it’s an awkward transition. It’s made worse by his hideous opening mash-up – Radiohead’s Street Spirit with Stimming & H.O.S.H.’s Radar thrown underneath. The records are out of key with each other, and are both ruined in the process. Awful. His set has some great moments with huge builds and epic, progressive riffs in places, but he continues to sully it with needless acapellas from the likes of Bjork (a tribute to her cancellation at this very festival perhaps?).
Booka Shade can’t come soon enough, and their awesome set gets virtually the biggest reaction of the weekend in this arena. Much better suited to this breathtaking, big-scale setting than the intimate London gig they played at ULU, the crowd go absolutely wild for them, and they provide a much needed energy lift at this late stage in the proceedings. Next up is a Deep Dish double helping – but they’re playing one after another rather than together, a real sign of the times for Sharam and Dubfire. We await Sharam with low expectations, but he surprises with some cool, dark ravey sounds before heading off into the overly-trancey sounds that we were fearing. In need of something a bit meatier, we head off to the Main Stage to catch Dillinja – but something’s wrong with the set times and Shy FX is still playing 45 minutes past his finishing time, and seems to have lost his way a bit. Barely able to see or stand anymore, we admit defeat and wave goodbye to this magnificent, endurance-testing beast of a festival.
*
The fact that we missed so much of what we planned to see is testament to the fact that there’s lots to choose from, it’s hard to pull yourself away from the Dance Arena, and that the place is so bloody big. Overcrowding in places was a bit of a nightmare too, which didn’t help matters either. It’s kind of a no-frills experience, but with such a great setting and great music for the most part, you don’t need much else. It’s cheap as chips, you can spend the whole of the next day chilling on the beach listening to music, and Novi Sad is a pretty nice little place. Just be warned – you’ll be doing a lot of walking, a lot of dancing on slopes, and lots of other extra-curricular activities if you’re there for the full 4 days...
Highly recommended – but you might need a couple of years to recover....
Now watch our highlights!
Photos courtesy of EXIT and Ben Davis