EXIT Competition has introduced that its upcoming 2025 version would be the final in its lifelong house of Serbia, after dealing with political backlash for supporting student-led protests occurring throughout the nation.
Following the conclusion of this 12 months’s pageant, which returns to the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Unhappy for its twenty fifth anniversary this July 10-13, organizers confirmed on social media that they are going to search for a brand new house for EXIT exterior of Serbia, whose authorities they declare has tried to abolish “our proper to freedom of thought and speech,” in response to a pageant assertion translated from Serbian.
Final 12 months, EXIT Competition backed college students throughout Serbia who’ve been protesting political corruption within the nation and demanding an investigation right into a roof collapse at Novi Unhappy prepare station that killed 16 individuals in November 2024.
In response to their assertion, the transfer was a no brainer for the EXIT staff, which launched the pageant in 2000 as a part of a peaceable scholar motion to take away the oppressive former Serbian president, Slobodan Milošević.
Now, organizers say they’ve been hit with retaliatory measures from the present Serbian authorities, a current tactic from president Aleksander Vučic, who has additionally reportedly focused actors, TV hosts, and different influential teams.
These authorities measures embrace reducing off all of EXIT’s public funding, “with out which within the restricted Serbian financial framework it’s not potential to understand a pageant of the dimensions and fame of EXIT in the long run,” pageant organizers wrote.
“If that is the final EXIT on the Fortress, let it’s unforgettable,” they continued. “Make it our strongest but. A pageant that’s remembered not for its finish, however for its unity. By love. For freedom!”
EXIT Competition returns to Novi Unhappy subsequent month with performances from Eric Prydz, Boris Brejcha, DJ Snake, Sara Landry, Solomun, Nina Kraviz, The Prodigy, Tiësto, and plenty of extra. For extra data, go to exitfest.org.
Featured picture courtesy: EXIT Competition.
