It appears EXIT Festival is heading back home to Serbia.
After a student-led movement ousted the country’s longtime authoritarian leader Aleksander Vučić from power in a parliamentary election last weekend, EXIT Festival director Dušan Kovačević hinted at the long-running dance event’s imminent return to Serbia in an interview with IQ Magazine.
EXIT Festival held its last edition in the country in July 2025, after organizers announced it would leave due to “financial and political pressures” from Vučić’s government over the festival’s support for student-led protests sweeping the country since the collapse of a railway station in Novi Sad killed 16 people in November 2024.
Led by college students, the movement primarily seeks to eradicate the corruption that led to the building’s neglect and calls for broader government accountability. Vučić’s government reportedly blacklisted artists and creatives who showed their support, including cutting over €1.5 million in public funding from EXIT, the country’s largest festival.
Instead of a Serbian edition this year, EXIT brought house and techno stars Charlotte de Witte, Michael Bibi, Adriatique and more to its one-off Starlight Festival at the Great Pyramids of Giza.
“This is like an earthquake. Everything is changing,” Kovačević told IQ. “I can only say, at this point, that we said that EXIT will return when the freedom returns. So freedom is returning, and, of course, it’s too early to say when it will be possible, but since last [election] night, we’ve got thousands of messages, on social media, people writing, and the media writing [to ask about EXIT’s return].”
Kovačević went on to acknowledge that organizing a festival of EXIT’s magnitude “takes a lot of time,” and added that they’re considering next steps as to whether “EXIT is returning in 2028, or if something is possible in 2027 even.”
You can read the full interview at iqmagazine.com.
Featured image courtesy: EXIT Festival. Credit: Benny Gaši.