Partying on the Danube: Exit Festival in Serbia
Exit Festival in Serbia
Having grown out of Reading Festival, tired of seeing fifteen year-olds ‘getting down’ to The Pigeon Detectives and The Klaxons, myself and several uni mates decided to take a punt on Exit Festival in Serbia. Although not as well publicised and thus not quite as mainstream as the likes of Benicassim, Rock Werchter and Melt Festival, Exit heads an impressive array of festivals in Central and Eastern Europe, ranging from Poland to Croatia.
After a bit of research into Exit, we were allured by the prospect of a festival in a medieval fortress overlooking the Danube River. However, what made the standard ‘What shall we do this summer?’ conversation around our student house transpire into reality was the price. With four days of music, Exit is priced at just £72 a ticket. I sold my Reading ticket for £210.
My friends and I, however, are criminally guilty of not carrying ideas through: usually due to a lack of funds and a major problem with laziness. Yet Exit – unlike the larger British festivals – does not require the hassle that usually accompanies getting a ticket. They were available from the official website from November right through until May, some comparison with the whole 30 seconds you get for Reading or Glastonbury.
Serbia is an oft-maligned part of Europe, somewhat untouched by the consumerism we might encounter in Britain. As a result, you are travelling to a country with a real sense of its own flavour and history. On the downside, it’s a bitch to get to. The vast majority of festival-goers seem to fly to Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and then from there catch a six-hour train to Novi Sad, the provincial university town in Northern Serbia, North-East of Belgrade. To save money, we flew to Bratislava in Slovakia, planning to catch another train to Budapest from there.
A twenty-pack of Marlboro lights costs £1.80, two litres of beer £2, and a big meal £3. You can get pissed, sick and give yourself lung cancer for very little.
To compare Bratislava to Budapest is very simple, much like comparing Darren Bent to Andrey Arshavin. One is shit, the other is not. It was not worth the small amount of money saved. Bratislava is the stereotype of Eastern European shithole: something you might have seen on Hostel or Behind Enemy Lines. If you want to experience what life in a former USSR city is like, then Bratislava is the place for you.
Regrettably we therefore had little time to see Budapest. We had heard a lot to recommend ‘the Paris of the East’, and we were not disappointed. Budapest, like Talinn and Krakow, is one of the cities in that part of the world quickly becoming a major budget destination for British tourists. Economic problems have conspired to create a place favourable to a student wallet: fantastic clubs, cheap beer and a multitude of genuinely fascinating sights. The major place of interest for the vast amounts of students converging on Budapest was the Szechenyi Spa: Budapest’s most famous outdoor Turkish baths. A £10 on a day ticket, to sit out in the sun in the deliciously warm and bubbly baths, engaging oneself in a traditional Hungarian social arena, was so, so worth it. Go. Seriously.
The primary reason for enjoying the luxury of the baths is the horror that will lie in front of you – the train. Although quite possibly preferable to the overpriced coach journey, the train ride to Novi Sad felt like catching the last train out of Poland as the Nazi’s came up over the horizon. In this case, pushing works. And if you don’t get a seat then you face the prospect of hunching up on the floor or standing by the toilet for the entire six-hour journey, unfortunately upped to eight due to numerous Serbian border checks.
But if it’s an adventure you’re after the train is recommended. Rolling into Novi Sad at sunrise, with a mist descending over the Serbian cornfields (just don’t read up on Slobodan Milosevic before you go) was genuinely magical, especially coming off the back of a mad train ride with pilled-up Glaswegian squaddies, a model from Blackpool and Felix the German.
Your typical Serbian male
Novi Sad itself is quite small and concrete, though rather more cosmopolitan and modern than you might think. Those in apartments (usually about £20 a night) head into town, whilst those camping (£20 for a week) caught a taxi to the top of the old army barracks in Petrovaradin: the site of the festival. Serbia gets a lot hotter than you might think, and the campsite lacks much in the way of shade. Crawling into your sleeping bag in your sauna of a tent at 8am, and being promptly awoken at 8.30am by the blistering sun, leaves you bleary-eyed to say the least. We found sanctuary at the river beach, one of the highlights of the holiday. Many a pleasant day was spent here.
Serbia is also immensely affordable (a key student concern). A twenty-pack of Marlboro lights costs around £1.80, two litres of decent beer about £2, and a big meal about £3. This means, simply, you can get pissed, sick and give yourself lung cancer for very little.
The festival itself usually kicked off about nine in the evening, carrying on until nine or ten the following morning. The fortress in which the festival is held is astounding. The dance arena must be the most incredible space for dance music in Europe: the floor is surrounded by ramparts, conspiring to create a bowl. One side is hacked off to create a slope, packed out with ravers. Other smaller stages (and believe me, there are a lot) have a similar feel, though not on such scale. What’s more, the festival organisers are not afraid to stick their neck out and book some slightly off-the wall acts. Where else could you see Madness, Prodigy, Grandmaster Flash and Moby on the same bill?
In addition, the sheer range and character of the bands on offer, from Croatian Ska to Latino Trip-Hop, will leave you with a distinct flavour in your mouth upon departing. I can now honestly call myself something of a fan of Romanian techno. Alongside the fantastic acts and incredible location, the festival is noticeable for the effort put into little extras: great lighting, chill-out areas at the top of the fortress, maps and so on. The security is iffy at best, but that is a necessary evil (or maybe a positive) of a non-EU festival: you are able to enjoy the sounds of Sub Focus as the sun rises over a medieval fortress in Serbia. Not something you get to do every day of the week.
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