During the closing ceremony, Marko Louis paused his performance to invite students from various universities across Serbia, currently in blockade, to join him on stage. Together, they formed a special choir that became the heart of the performance and the driving rhythm behind the song “Vatra u mraku (Fire in the Dark),” resonating as a powerful final message of this milestone edition.
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In the middle of the performance, Marko Louis raised his phone and turned on its flashlight. Moments later, the Main Stage was illuminated by tens of thousands of tiny lights from the crowd. Unity in silence sounded louder and more powerful than any noise. Marko then called on everyone to give a thunderous cheer for the students, followed by a collective singalong of the chorus: “I don’t want to be afraid of the dark, light the fire, be the torch, I need to know you’re here…” a chorus that, for months, served as a generational megaphone for a moment in time.
Then came the resounding chant: “PUMPAJ!” The message and social call that had echoed through the Fortress over all four nights of the festival. It was a cry that confirmed the spirit of unity was more awake than ever and unafraid of the dark.
“Thank you, everyone. Thank you, EXIT. I hope to see you here again in two years,” said Marko Louis, as the last few lights on the Fortress grew dim.
Marko Louis had previously revealed, at this year’s Sea Star Festival in Umag, that the idea for the song was conceived together with EXIT: “This song was created through a very intimate collaboration with EXIT. It was a shared idea between Zdravko Vulin, Dušan Kovačević, and myself to express what we experienced and felt, and to share that with the audience at the opening of EXIT 2023,” said Marko Louis.
The State of EXIT may have symbolically closed, but its message remains: the collective fire burning within us cannot be extinguished.
