After attending the Exit festival for the first time last last year, I knew I had to go back again and check it out. It was held like previous years in the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, just on the banks of the River Danube. With a steller line up that included the likes of The Prodigy, Robert Plant, Groove Armada, The Beastie Boys, Green Velvet, Richie Hawtin, Danny Tenaglia, Paul Woolford, Lauren Hill, Basement Jaxx, Snoop Dogg, LTJ Bukem, Frankie Knuckles, Roger Sanchez, Audio Bullys, Wu-Tang Clan, Pendulum and John Digweed, I couldn't wait to see it again.

We decided to get an apartment this year which was just down the road from the campsite and across the river from the festival site. It also costs pennies in a taxi to get to and from the site each day. It cost about 100 dinars per trip, which was about 80p between four people. We ended up giving the taxi drivers 200 dinars each trip because we felt awful just giving such a small amount of money to them. We did the camping experience last year and I would recommend it to anyone who is experiencing Exit for the first time. There is a certain buzz around the campsite which was missed, but we just found the heat in the campsite in the morning a lot to handle, so we opted for the comforts of a bed and four walls instead.

We arrived in Novi Sad on the Wednesday evening, the day before the festival started. In the evening we went down to check out the beach behind the campsite where they have a stage setup and music playing throughout the daytime. This was all still being setup so we chilled around the bar and food area just outside the campsite. There was music being played throughout the night but there was no DJ playing which was a shame, just a stereo cranked up very loud. This did not distract from a good night and by the later on in the evening it seemed like everyone who was in Novi Sad already had come to party, dancing on the tables and the walkways. It was a good taster for things to come.

Day One: We made our way to the festival site around 8pm and wandered round to check it out. We had a bit of time before we had to see the main act of the night ' the Prodigy on the main stage. We checked out some of the other stages like the World music stage, the Fusion stage, the reggae stage and the latino stage - which is hilarious when you've had a few beers.

After a bit of exploring, we made our way down to the main stage to see the Prodigy. We got there

just in time to see the last twenty minutes of Robert Plant & the strange sensations playing a few Led Zeppelin covers. We decided to get right in the action for the Prodigy's set, so we got as close as we could to the front of the stage without being too uncomfortable. I have seen the Prodigy before at Creamfields in the UK and the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, but on both occasions I didn't enjoy them as there were technical issues with the sound levels. This time though, there were no such issues. The setup and production was perfect and they were brilliant. The only problem I had was after they had finished, it took me around forty-five minutes to escape the main stage crowd and get to somewhere else.

We went to check out the Dance arena after this where Green Velvet, Richie Hawtin and Magda were due to play for the remainder of the night. When we got there, it was packed with the crowd already in full swing. After being right in the thick of things for the Prodigy, we decided to stay to the side of the main crowd and relax a bit. This wasn't a problem as far as the sound was concerned as the dance arena has speakers all along the arena and the sound quality and levels are not effected even though you are not in the main crowd. The highlight of the three for me was Richie Hawtin. I wouldn't normally go and see him, but he was really good playing until the sun came up in the morning. We lasted till around 7am and then we had to go back and get some sleep aware of the fact that there was still three full days ahead of us.

Day Two: After feeling a bit worse for wear today after parting for the last two days, we arrived at the site quite late on and went straight up to the Cafe Del Danube were we got stuck into some cocktails to set ourselves up for the night ahead. The cafe is located near the top of the fortress and the views over the river Danube are amazing. It's the perfect way to chill out and start your night. It is so good, it took a lot to make us move from there and make our way back down to the main stage to see the Beastie Boys.

We decided to stay at the back of the main crowd when they were on. Although you may miss out on some of the atmosphere a little bit, its a lot easier to get out of the masses afterwards. The Beastie Boys played a lot of new material, which I was not in to. It was quite slow, but the crowd went wild when some of the more recognised tracks got played especially 'Intergalactic'. I was perticulary impressed with the DJ ' Mixmaster Mike. He was amazing. Some of the technical mixing and sampling was unreal by him and the speed of which he did this was unbelievable.

As with the previous night, we then headed over to the dance arena, just in time to catch the end of Paul Woolford's set. After Woolford, Danny Tenaglia took to the decks. He was playing a four hour set in the main slot of the evening and I have to say one of the best DJ sets I have ever seen. It was magical. Maybe it was setting as well. It is really special in that arena, especially when the sun comes up in the morning. Tenaglia had the crowd in the palm of his hands, enjoying every minute of it and going down to the front of the stage to dance with the crowd. What a overall performance. Nic Fanciulli took to the stage to finish the night off. No disrespect to Nic Fanciulli, but it was a very hard act to follow. Even so, he was good playing his usual trademark beats alongside the odd classic and the arena lit up when he played remixes of underworld and love story near the end.

Day Three: It was beginning to become hard. Three days had taken it's toll. But determined we made our way to the festival stopping off at the Cafe Del Danube, for what was becoming the regular cocktail session to start the evening off. We headed down to see Basement Jaxx on the main arena and suprisingly caught the end of Lauren Hill. We soon caught on that all the acts had been delayed on the main stage by a while. This was not good news, as hanging around would do our current state no good at all. We needed the night to start and get into the swing of things. Nevertheless we decided to stay and wait for Basement Jaxx. They eventually took to the stage. Basement Jaxx were good and they got us going for the night ahead. We stayed to watch Snoop Dogg do his thing as well. It wasn't really my choice of music, but I always like to see and experience different types of music whenever I can. I could appreciate the effect his music had on the adoring crowd. After Snoop, we headed over towards the dance arenas, stopping off at the Urban Bug stage to see what was going on. It was on the top of the walkway just above the dance arena. There was only a few hundred people there dancing away, but it was great. It was like a mini rave hidden away in the trees. After losing ourselves for a while, we left to go down to the main dance arena to check out Frankie Knuckles and Roger Sanchez. After Roger Sanchez had finished around 5am, we decided to get an early night and catch up on some much needed sleep. It is possible to party round the clock at Exit. The Dance arena at Exit runs till 8am, then there is the official afterparty and then after that in the afternoon the campsite beach has DJ's playing until the festival starts again

Day Four: Refreshed and recharged after a relatively early night by Serbian standards, we headed down to the beach to check out the music and see what was going on. We chilled out down the beach for a while and then went for some food on the Zeppelin boat, which is permanently moored just along from the campsite. After eating, we made our way to the site for what was to be our last night at Exit. When we got there, we had a good walk around the site and had a look at all the stages and arenas that we had not had the opportunity to see so far and of course making a stop to grab a cocktail along the way. The first main act of the night we went to see was the Audio Bullys on the main stage, followed by the Wu- Tang Clan. Again similar to what I said about Snoop dog, it wasn't really my music, but was an experience none the less. After making a quick stop in foodland to pick up the nicest cheese and ham sausage rolls you have ever tasted, we headed down to the Dance Arena. One place we hadn't been to yet was the HappiNoviSad Stage. This is tucked away to one side behind the main dance arena and is a little hidden gem. Along with a quaint little bar it was just a small field that could fit around a thousand people. We went back through to the Dance arena and caught the end of Blackstrobe's live set just before John Digweed was due to hit the decks. We were down to the last few hours of the festival and were determined to enjoy ever second.

We danced at the back of the crowd against the wall, so we could soak up the atmosphere and look out across the rest of the crowd. We listened to Digweed's set followed by Eric Prydz. Digweed played his usual blend of beats, but it was Eric Prydz that surprised me. I have never really listened to a full set of his before. Obviously he is well known for some of his more commercial tracks, but I really enjoyed the music he played and it was a bit of a special moment when he dropped 'proper education' to 20,000 people going wild in the moat of a fortress in Serbia. Madness! Last on the bill was Serbia's own ' Marco Nastic. He always plays the last set of the festival in the Dance arena every year. The sun had come up by this point, we were down to the last two hours of Exit 2007 and we were knackered, but determined to stay until the last beat had been dropped. We spent the last few hours right up on the hills at the back of the Dance arena. You had an amazing view, looking right down over everyone in the arena. We made it to the end with the scorching sun bearing down on us. It was time to go home and leave Exit for another year.

Conclusion: In a nutshell, Exit is an amazing experience. There is so much going for this festival. The location is perfect. Situated in the Petrovaradin fortress overlooking the River Danube. The weather has always been brilliant, maybe a bit too warm but you can't really complain about that. Musically speaking there are around 20 stages and arenas and over 400 musicians playing over the four-day festival, so there is something there for everyone. I was very impressed with the production side of things. The sound was always high quality with good visuals to go alongside.

The site is well organised for something on this scale. It was quite easy to navigate around, but sometimes a slow process due to the number of people trying to do that at the same time. The drinks tokens were a new concept this year and I thought the worked ok. It was sometimes puzzling because some of the smaller bars took money and no tokens and vice versa which was a little bit frustrating at times. The Exit currency was a good idea and you didn't even mind being left with a couple after the end of the festival because they were so cheap and they made good souveniers. If you wanted food, you headed to foodland which was just a seperate field where there was a large selection of different food stalls. Easy. I particulary liked the cheese and ham sausage rolls off the bakery stand, they were a godsend and kept me going over the four days.

I only hope exit does not become to popular in the next few years as I fear it may lose some it's rawness & it's individuality. That said, It is one of the best festivals that I have ever been to alongside Glastonbury and Burning Man. It is a must if you want a good and diverse music selection in an amazing location, with warm weather and some of the friendliest people I have ever met.

By Stu Bradley

Related Links

www.exitfest.org
www.serbia-tourism.org
www.clubconnected.co.uk/gallery/exit_festival_2007/index.html

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