{"id":78618,"date":"2025-08-07T13:50:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/?p=78618"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:50:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:50:28","slug":"exit-festival-launches-save-exit-freedom-campaign-amid-serbia-government-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/exit-festival-launches-save-exit-freedom-campaign-amid-serbia-government-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"EXIT Festival launches \u2018Save EXIT Freedom\u2019 campaign amid Serbia government backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nSave EXIT Freedom<\/p>\n

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Born from the student protests back in 2000, EXIT quickly grew into one of the most popular and respected music festivals on the planet. After publicly supporting the current mass student protests in Serbia,\u00a0EXIT Festival is facing fierce government pressure\u00a0and complete withdrawal of over \u20ac1.5 million in public co-funding\u00a0and government-controlled sponsorships. The festival is also encountering\u00a0other serious political and security threats aimed at\u00a0silencing its voice and financially draining it into shutdown.<\/div>\n

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To safeguard EXIT’s independence and the values it fiercely upholds,\u00a0the festival launched a global crowdfunding campaign.\u00a0The\u00a0goal is to ensure the immediate stability of the festival organization and protect over 100 permanent jobs.\u00a0These are individuals who, despite unprecedented pressure and financial obstacles, stood united in support of the student movement, fully aware that taking a stand could lead to the shutdown of the organization. At\u00a0Save.Exitfest.Org<\/a>, anybody\u00a0who believes that culture and art should never be controlled\u00a0can\u00a0donate directly to the organization or purchase future tickets and digital assets to help secure EXIT\u2019s future.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe recent EXIT Festival is\u00a0of immeasurable importance\u00a0– a historical moment when\u00a0one\u00a0music festival boldly stood up against fierce governmental pressure\u00a0aimed at silencing our freedom of speech\u00a0and suppressing our support for Serbia’s brave students.\u00a0We stood stronger than any attempt at state repression and demonstrated that unity, solidarity and love still triumphs over fear, and that art cannot be silenced.\u201d said Du\u0161an Kova\u010devi\u0107, the founder of the EXIT Festival group.\u00a0He added: \u201cThrough this crowdfunding campaign, we are standing up for the independence of an entire organization and the people behind it.\u00a0We strongly believe\u00a0this is a moment for the music industry to unite, protect one of its own, and demonstrate that collectively it is stronger than any government in the world.\u00a0By defending independence and freedom for EXIT, we defend the freedom of all artists, music professionals, and organizations in the music industry\u00a0who might face similar pressures anywhere in the world.\u00a0\u00a0Because the\u00a0fight for freedom for one is the fight for freedom for all.\u201d<\/div>\n
EXIT Festival was born from a dream of freedom 25 years ago, sparked by young people who refused to stay silent in the face of Balkan wars and political oppression.\u00a0Since then, it has grown into one of the world\u2019s largest music festivals, twice winning the Best Major Festival at the European Festival Awards (EFA) and currently holding the EFA\u2019s prestigious Take a Stand Award, presented annually to festivals that courageously advocate for human rights, social justice, and positive change in society.<\/p>\n

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Save EXIT Freedom Born from the student protests back in 2000, EXIT quickly grew into one of the most popular and respected music festivals on the planet. After publicly supporting the current mass student protests in Serbia,\u00a0EXIT Festival is facing fierce government pressure\u00a0and complete withdrawal of over \u20ac1.5 million in public co-funding\u00a0and government-controlled sponsorships. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":78619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3972],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78622,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78618\/revisions\/78622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}