Not just as a music event, but as a feeling, a heartbeat for summer nights, a space for freedom, unity, and belonging. An integral part of the identity and life of everyone who created it, breathed it, and loved it.
“We live in trying times – times of division, anger, outrage, and witch hunts; times when you’re on this side or that, with a chasm in between. For me, EXIT has long represented more than its organizers, names, and faces – it has even become more than a festival. If you don’t feel the same, maybe you’ve never truly understood its magnitude.
After all these years, EXIT has become part of my upbringing, my life, my memories. EXIT is July. EXIT is summer. EXIT is Novi Sad. EXIT is getting ready in a rented apartment while one person plays sets and another makes gin and tonics. EXIT is the glow bracelets on the bridge, 5 for 100 dinars. EXIT is glitter. EXIT is all the kids attending a festival for the first time. EXIT is our old spot by the right speaker. EXIT is seeing people you haven’t seen in a year and picking up the conversation right where you left off last July: ‘Hey, are you going to Štrand tomorrow?’
EXIT is the small talk with strangers. EXIT is the pure love you feel the next morning for the DJ who absolutely killed it. EXIT is your smile to people passing by. EXIT is your hugs with people you just met. EXIT is dancing with your crew and telling them you love them. EXIT is the inside jokes that last until the next festival. EXIT is that one song that gives you goosebumps the moment it starts. EXIT is the cold beer at 8 a.m. that brings you back to life. EXIT is the staircase you have to climb after dancing all night. EXIT is the taxi that never shows up. EXIT is dusty sneakers. EXIT is sitting on the grass between the porta-potties near the Bastion entrance. EXIT is your friends trash-talking Dance Arena and dragging you to NSNS. EXIT is the panic that sets in on the last night because it’s all ending. EXIT is one of the most beautiful things that has ever happened to this country, and I’m beyond sad that some kids out there might never get the chance to witness the sunrise at the Arena, which is something no one can ever fully explain, because it cannot be put into words. It’s a feeling you carry with you forever.
I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought that this really might have been the last dance, because to me, it would be the end of an era. I won’t say goodbye, but I will say thank you to everyone who played a part in my EXIT memories, and I’ll just say: the pleasure was mine. If this really is the end, maybe it’s time for a new beginning. If this really is the end, then let it be Mladen who played us out. See you next year in… because the dancing must go on ❤,” posted Hristina on Instagram.
