The grand celebration of Exit’s 15th birthday began last night in front of more than 40.000 people in a great mood who have danced until dawn to their favourite stars at about 20 stages all over the Petrovaradin fortress! The night at the main stage was flamed up by the Californian rock’n’roll masters Eagles of Death Metal, with their guitars riffs, blindfolds, and fun communication with the audience. The British hit-makers Clean Bandit brought the atmosphere to the boiling point with an energetic pop performance with the officially biggest European hit “Rather Be” and other audience favourites like “Mozzart House”, “Dust Clears” and “Real Love”. It was followed by the never before seen fireworks show which had exactly 15 spectacular heart shapes in the sky in the spirit of this year’s slogan “Share love” and Exit’s 15th birthday.
The fireworks served as an intro for the highly emotional performance by Emeli Sande in front of a bursting main stage! The soul diva has greeted the audience in fluent Serbian with “Good evening, how are you”, and after the first song “Heaven”, she was so smitten with the cheers of tens of thousands of people at main stage that she sent one big “Thank you!” in Serbian. This was followed by some of today’s biggest hits from the officially most sold debut album “Our version of Events”, and Emeli opened her soul with a touching performance and her lyrics. The eruption of emotions swelled onto the next track “My Kind of Love” with which Sande confirmed her place as a worthy successor of the biggest soul divas in history. Lyrics “If the truth has been forbidden, then we’re breaking all the rules” echoed from the song “Read All About It”. At the end of an excellent concert, the Scottish singer came down from the stage in sheer euphoria and hung out with fans who waited for her in front of the entrance to the backstage, where she sang “Happy Birthday Exit” into a camera! Emeli is also the first Exit star who signed a set list for a charity action by Jovan Simić called “Make Miracles Happen”!
The honour of opening Exit at main stage fell to the hard core punks Goblini, and the X-Bass program was opened by the “musical founder” of Exit, Roni Size with the drum’n’bass supergroup Reprazent who reminded us of 2001 and the message that echoes through the fortress to this very day: Serbia, are you ready for the future”! The crowded Dance Arena, the capacity of which has been additionally extended this year, hosted the techno mages Chris Liebing and Adam Beyer, who performed in a joint set with Joseph Capriati. The Explosive stage was blown away by cult metal-heads Napalm Death, and the bursting Fusion stage featured Greek stoners 1000mods and the Israeli singer/songwriter Lola Marsh, as well as domestic vendettas Partibrejkersi and Darkwood Dub, while the final concert fell into the hands of alternative heroes Artan Lili. At the No Sleep Novi Sad stage there was an excellent set by the Scottish house mage Scott Fraser with support from local DJ collectives Disco Not Disco and Beyond House.
Tonight at main stage of Exit festival one can expect rock’n’roll legends Motörhead, after whoM comes the British star Tom Odell. The mts Dance Arena expect world DJ no.1 Hardwell, who’ll be followed by Oliver Heldens, Kolsch and the duo Catz’n’Dogz. Fusion stage will be host to regional attractions like Eyesburn, Brkovi and Zoster, while the Explosive stage welcomes the famous American hardcore group Terror.
Tickets are available at Gigstix until 16h (4pm), after which they will only be available at the festival shop at the fortress. They will cost 4.000RSD for tonight, 3.790 for Saturday only if purchased today, and tomorrow the price of single day tickets for Saturday will rise. The tickets for the final night are still 3.000RSD and their final price at the entrance will be higher. Festival shops are located across the main entrance at the fortress, across Lovotours, and next to the church below the watch. Visitors are warned to stay away from fake tickets which circulate on social networks and streets at this time.
