Serbian PM urges Exit Festival to take place this August

  • Published
    Fri, May 22, 2020, 19:07
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    Resident Advisor
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  • The move runs counter to most other countries' actions and advice about the return of music festivals.
  • Serbian PM urges Exit Festival to take place this August image
  • Serbia's Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has urged Exit Festival to occur in some capacity this August. The Novi Sad festival, which normally draws 55,000 people a day across 40 stages at Petrovaradin Fortress, has already announced that it will not be held in its standard format this year, but—in a move counter to most other countries' actions and advice—Brnabic has urged organizers not to cancel. In a statement Friday, Brnabic claimed, "We expect that the situation (with pandemic) in the whole of Europe will be totally under control by then." The statement did not share more details to support this conclusion. Exit Festival organizers state a willingness to take the recommendations of health officials into consideration when determining capacity and necessary precautionary measures for an August event. The Serbian government's statement is an outlier as many countries have banned large-scale events through September and October. In various governments' multi-stage plans to ease lockdowns, the return of music festivals and nightclubs is often placed in the last stage, which are estimated to occur near the end of the year at the earliest. Some US experts and government officials have said it's likely large-scale live music events won't return until well into 2021. Last year's Exit Festival bill included the likes of Carl Cox, Amelie Lens and Blawan. This post has been updated.
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