Last night in Groningen, the EXIT Festival received the Promoter of the Year award in the final of Europe’s most prestigious festival competition, the European Festival Awards. The award carries particular weight and significance, given that last year, because of its support for student protests, EXIT was effectively driven out of Serbia.
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The awards ceremony took place on 14 January at the opening of Eurosonic Noorderslag in the Dutch city of Groningen, which each year brings together the most prominent players in the music industry. The Promoter of the Year award is presented by a professional jury of several dozen leading experts from the European music industry, recognizing and honouring event organizations that have pushed the boundaries of what is possible to give audiences unforgettable experiences. In a stacked field that included Tomorrowland, Sziget, Germany’s leading event organization FKP Scorpio, and Austrian concert and production company Barracuda, EXIT was named the best event organization in Europe, achieving one of the most significant victories in its history.
On behalf of EXIT, the award was accepted by founders Ivan Milivojev and Dušan Kovačević, along with festival team member Ognjen Tomašević. Speaking on behalf of the organization, Milivojev said: “This year is the first time in our history that we will not be at the Fortress, as a reprisal for our support of the students, to whom we dedicate this award.“
In his words of thanks, Kovačević underlined that the milestone 25th edition was the most challenging in the festival’s history. “This is not just about EXIT: all performers, cultural organizations, and cultural workers who supported the students have been blacklisted and left with almost no income for over a year. The entire free-thinking scene in Serbia is on the verge of extinction, which is why we are using this opportunity to call on the European Union to deploy its mechanisms to support the cultural and creative scene in Serbia,” Kovačević said, concluding: “A united music industry is stronger than any government in the world.“
At the end of the address, Tomašević closed the message of thanks to the EXIT team and the youth of Serbia with the words: “We will be back, no question about it.”
The milestone 25th edition of the EXIT Festival unfolded in the spirit of support for the students, with powerful messages of solidarity. This was reflected in everything: from the opening ceremony with Gala and the student protest anthem “Freed from Desire,” the student stage and student exhibitions covering the protests, all the way to the official closing with Marko Louis and the song “Vatra u mraku” (“Fire in the Dark”), which he performed together with blockading students on the festival’s Main Stage. Support for the students’ struggle from the main stages also came from major global stars, from renowned Live Aid founder Bob Geldof and Italian techno diva Indira Paganotto to the legendary punk band Sex Pistols and numerous domestic acts including Ritam Nereda, Goblini, Atheist Rap, Nikola Vranjković, KKN and others, for whom EXIT represented one of the few oases of freedom in which they were able to perform in Serbia over the past year.
Since its inception in 2000, EXIT has not been just a music event, but a movement that grew out of the student struggle for freedom, democracy, and the right to a different future. From the very first day, through its “zero” edition held in the University Park in Novi Sad, EXIT brought together more than 200,000 people. It became a symbol of a generation that, through art and music, sought a way out of decades of madness, isolation, and fear in a society where young people found the strength to raise their voices. Just two days after the festival ended, Serbia stepped into a period of major social change.
Year after year, the festival grew together with its audience, carefully building an identity and values that became bigger than the music programme itself. Over the next 25 years, the festival evolved into one of the most respected and influential platforms in Europe. From that historic fortress, over more than two decades, audiences gathered unforgettable experiences while the production raised artistic standards, creating a cultural legacy that shaped entire generations and made that space a meeting point of freedom and belonging. In this way, a clear message was sent to the world that ideas capable of inspiring the European and global festival and music industry can also be born in the Balkans.
Today, EXIT is one of the leading platforms for the creative industries in the region and beyond, as well as a symbol of the belief that it is possible to build an international reputation from Serbia without renouncing the values on which everything began, even at the cost of sacrificing the festival’s existence in its own country. As an organization, it has so far delivered more than 200 events in over 20 countries worldwide, along with numerous socially responsible and educational initiatives through its foundation activities.
