Latest news with #DusanKovacevic
LeMonde
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- LeMonde
The Exit music festival in Serbia faces closure as government cracks down on dissent
LETTER FROM CENTRAL EUROPE After 25 years in Serbia, the 2025 edition of the renowned Exit music festival, which opens Thursday, July 10, in Novi Sad, may be the last to take place in the country. "We cannot accept operating in a country where our fundamental freedom of expression is called into question," said Dusan Kovacevic, the festival's director. Each year, tens of thousands of attendees gather for several days of concerts in the fortress overlooking the Danube in Serbia's second largest city. "Ever since we supported the fight of Serbian students for justice and freedom, all our funding has been cut," said the forty-something. The festival announced in mid-June that it was being pushed "into exile" due to "enormous government pressure" following its support for the broad anti-corruption protest movement that has swept this country of 6.6 million people since November 2024. The accidental collapse of the canopy at Novi Sad train station, 100 kilometers northwest of Belgrade, which killed 16 people, triggered the protest movement. Since this tragedy, massive demonstrations have taken place across the country against nationalist president Aleksandar Vucic, in power since 2017, who has been accused of allowing corruption to flourish. The government has tried to suppress the protests by increasingly authoritarian means: arrests have become more common, as have sanctions against cultural institutions that have shown their support for the movement by sharing what has become its symbol: a bloodied red hand.
BBC News
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Exit festival pulls out of Serbia after backing student protests
One of Europe's largest music festivals is pulling out of Serbia with organisers blaming "undemocratic pressures". Exit festival will hold its 25th anniversary edition in the country between 10 and 13 July, but said it "will be the last to take place" there. Organisers say Serbian authorities have cut off government funding for the event and some sponsors have been "forced to withdraw under state pressure".They say this relates to the festival's support for an ongoing student-led anti-corruption protest movement in officials at the culture secretariat have rejected the allegations, blaming financial pressures for being "unable to provide support". Held at Petrovaradin Fortress in Serbia's second city, Novi Sad, the festival attracted 200,000 visitors last year. Exit has its roots in the pro-democracy protest movement which eventually led to the defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia's presidential elections in 2000. That activist tradition has continued, with each year given a theme, ranging from "Stop Human Trafficking" to "Loud and Queer".Following last November's disaster at Novi Sad railway station – where 16 people died when a concrete canopy collapsed – students launched protests, and the festival offered its support to them. This ranged from joining students on protest marches to providing "food, sleeping bags, and other necessities" and publishing messages of support on social media and Exit's Dusan Kovacevic says this has now come at a heavy financial cost for the festival, but that "freedom has no price".In a statement about the decision to pull out of Serbia after 25 years, he calls for people to remember Exit "not for its end, but for its unity. For love. For freedom". It is unclear whether the festival will seek to relocate to a different country, and if so where. Headline acts over the years have included The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys and The Cure. Next month, The Prodigy are returning for their sixth appearance at the festival, alongside The Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter and French DJ and producer DJ has won two European festival of the year awards and grown to become one of the continent's largest multi-day music events. Daryl Fidelak, who runs a Belgrade-based record label, says the festival has had an immense impact on Serbia's creative scene."It's opened the eyes of the international audience, bringing lots of foreigners who might have had a negative – or even no – impression of Serbia," he says."Exit has helped Serbia get to a good place with live music and culture, spawning a lot of other festivals, bookers and events."
