From 28 to 30 August, EXIT 2 Montenegro – Sea Dance Edition in Budva offered the audience more than a music programme, connecting the festival experience with history, technology, creativity and sustainability. Through EXIT Universe, a travelling festival experience created to mark 25 years of EXIT Festival, and INSPIRE The Change, an environmental initiative dedicated to responsible packaging management and innovative solutions for preventing plastic pollution, visitors had the opportunity to experience the festival from new perspectives and actively participate in its content.
EXIT Universe Presented a Quarter Century of EXIT Festival
Through EXIT Universe, the festival audience in Budva immersed themselves in the history, energy and most important moments of one of the largest music festivals in Europe. The combination of music, storytelling, immersive technology and interactive content enabled visitors to discover EXIT from a completely new perspective.
At the centre of the EXIT Universe installation was the EXIT van, which introduced visitors to a series of interactive zones. The EXIT Timeline zone took visitors through a quarter century of the festival’s development, its most important moments, international awards and social engagement, while the VR Experience zone, using advanced VR technology, spatial sound and 360° video, enabled the audience to experience the energy of EXIT Festival as if they were in the middle of the festival crowd, on stage or behind the scenes of major performances.
With its stop in Budva, EXIT Universe continued its regional journey, after being presented this summer at Malomfesztivál in Orom and the Green Future Music Festival in Senta. Through this travelling experience, EXIT brings its story, heritage and festival culture closer to audiences across the region, connecting music, technology and cultural heritage.
EXIT Universe is part of the Incredible Destinations Events project, a partnership between the EXIT Foundation and the National Heritage Park in Ópusztaszer (ONTE), Hungary, implemented with the support of the Interreg IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme Hungary–Serbia.
The Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme Hungary-Serbia is implemented within the 2021-2027 European Union financial framework, under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). On the basis of “shared management system” of the participating countries – Hungary and Serbia, the Programme funds and supports co-operation projects of organizations based in the Programme-eligible area – Hungarian counties Csongrád and Bács-Kiskun, and Serbian territories: West Bačka, North Bačka, South Bačka, North Banat, Central Banat, South Banat and Srem district. The Programme helps the development of a stable and co-operating region and the overall quality of life in the border region. It enables economic collaboration of organizations from the two countries, nurtures the common identity, and cultural and historical heritage of the border region, and contributes to its environmental sustainability and safety. For more information, please visit: hungary-serbia.eu.
INSPIRE The Change: Sustainability as Part of the Festival Experience
At the same time, INSPIRE The Change demonstrated how sustainability can be an integral and interactive part of the festival experience. During the three days of the festival, more than 10,000 cans and PET bottles were collected, 200 personalised T-shirts were distributed, while fresh fruit was served to the festival audience in pouches made from innovative INSPIRE paper.
As part of the ReCan Foundation’s “Every Can Counts” programme, visitors handed over empty cans and PET bottles to mobile promotional teams, which, with the help of Solagro’s award-winning Smart Flex system, issued vouchers for personalised T-shirts. Due to high demand, the initial allocation of 150 T-shirts was supplemented with another 50, so a total of 200 festival souvenirs were distributed, which were decorated at the INSPIRE The Change Corner by artist Đurađ Stevanović. Each T-shirt thus received a unique environmental message and became part of the personal festival experience.
At the INSPIRE The Change Corner, the visitors could also learn about coated biodegradable paper, an innovative solution developed within the European INSPIRE project. Its application was presented directly at the festival, where fresh fruit was distributed to visitors in pouches made from this material.
Through INSPIRE The Change, three approaches to sustainability were brought together – responsible packaging disposal and recycling, the presentation of innovative solutions for reducing the use of plastic, and creative audience engagement. In this way, the initiative showed that sustainability is not only a topic to be discussed, but an experience in which the festival audience can actively participate.
EXIT Universe and INSPIRE The Change together thus contributed to creating a festival experience that connects the past and the future, technology and creativity, as well as entertainment with a responsible attitude towards the environment.
The INSPIRE The Change initiative was implemented as part of the European INSPIRE project, under the Green EXIT Adriatic platform of EXIT Foundation, in cooperation with the ReCan Foundation’s “Every Can Counts” programme and Solagro.
INSPIRE is a four-year project funded by the European Union through the Horizon programme, whose aim is to contribute to the restoration of oceans, seas, rivers and other aquatic ecosystems by 2030 through the detection, collection and valorisation of plastic waste and, above all, through the prevention of new pollution.
