| Exit named best European festival |
| 7 November 2007 | 11:11 | Source: Tanjug |
| LONDON -- The Exit festival in Novi Sad on Tuesday received the Best European Festival award at the UK’s Festival Awards 2007. They beat off competition from 40 of the biggest European festivals, Exit said in a statement. The only criterium for the award, presented to Exit representatives Ivan Milivojev and Konstantin Polzović at a ceremony in London, were votes from the public. The other competitors included FIB Benicassim (Spain), Roskilde (Denmark), Hultsfred (Sweden), Les Eurockeennes de Belfort (France), Pinkpop, Lowlands (Netherlands), Quart Festival (Norway), and Pukkelpop and Rock Werchter (Belgium). People throughout world voted for the nominated festivals via the internet. These were the fourth annual Festival Awards, and the first time that the category for Best European Festival had been included. |
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It's official, Exit is the best festival in Europe! This is great news for Serbia and another fine achievement to add to the list, first Eurovision and now Exit. It really does please me to see more and more positive news regarding Serbia, it is about time for the rest of the world to see the real Serbia and 'over-write' the image of a grey, primitive and depressing pariah state.
It really does bug me when people in the West make comments such as: "Isn't there a war going on there?", or "Why would you want to go to Serbia, isn't it dangerous?" The dark and negative connotations associated with Serbia for the past 15 years are finally changing. More and more European tourists are visiting and I would say that EXIT is one of the best ways to market Serbia (of course alongside the countryside, skiing, interesting cities etc) for younger travellers.
This year at EXIT there were over 20,000 foreigners, and 16,000 of them were Brits. I'm pretty sure that 99% of them had a positive experience, which they took away with them back to the UK and told many people. I can only presume there will be even more Brits and other foreign nationals in 2008.
Watch out Serbia, the cat's out of the bag now, so expect a British Invasion next year in Novi Sad. Whether that's for good or bad remains to be seen! But one thing is for sure, Serbia seems to be escaping from its shackles finally and branding itself nicely in the West - I just hope that nothing (and nobody) ruins all the good work.
It really does bug me when people in the West make comments such as: "Isn't there a war going on there?", or "Why would you want to go to Serbia, isn't it dangerous?" The dark and negative connotations associated with Serbia for the past 15 years are finally changing. More and more European tourists are visiting and I would say that EXIT is one of the best ways to market Serbia (of course alongside the countryside, skiing, interesting cities etc) for younger travellers.
This year at EXIT there were over 20,000 foreigners, and 16,000 of them were Brits. I'm pretty sure that 99% of them had a positive experience, which they took away with them back to the UK and told many people. I can only presume there will be even more Brits and other foreign nationals in 2008.
Watch out Serbia, the cat's out of the bag now, so expect a British Invasion next year in Novi Sad. Whether that's for good or bad remains to be seen! But one thing is for sure, Serbia seems to be escaping from its shackles finally and branding itself nicely in the West - I just hope that nothing (and nobody) ruins all the good work.
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