EXIT Festival Tips: You’ll Need Them…

It’s time to pledge your allegiance to a festival. All the big uns have announced their line ups and this year my vote goes to EXIT festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. I went in 2010 and had a brilliant time. I got absolutely annihilated every night, but that was all part of the fun.

My best memory is going to watch Placebo on the main stage the first night. For some reason I decided it’d be a great idea to do handstands in front of the big screen. This sent all the Jager I’d drank along the way to my head and I became a tad mad…

I was making friends left, right and centre. I’m told I had a queue of people waiting for me to paint their faces with the neon paint we’d bought. They were literally snaked around me waiting for me to paint their faces. For the next few days at the festival random people would come and hug me and say hello, I had no idea who they were, but apparently I’d been best friends with them that night.

Moral of the story: neon paint + Jager + handstands = friends.

The Festival

EXIT Festival is amazing. You know it’s in an old fortress right? It was nothing how I imagined, so much cooler. The floor is unsteady and you’ll definitely get lost, but that’s all part of the fun. There’s a good vibe there and everyone’s just out to have fun.

It’s pretty easy to get between stages and there are loads of cool chill out areas too for when it all gets a bit too crazy.

Look, on that first night I told you about someone took a photo of me and Waiel and it ended up on some Swiss website. Haha, I’m a state.

Accommodation

After a hot tip from a chum who’d been before we decided to get an apartment. It is so hot in Novi Sad in the day, I’m glad we didn’t go for the inclusive camping.

Although, our apartment was not particularly good. There was four of us with a sofa and a double bed in one room. By the second day the drains were overflowing and the air con was only in one room. Still glad we had it though, and we were never there really. It only cost about £10 a each a night as well – what can you expect?

Some friends stayed in a hostel, but they said it was crazy and they didn’t get any sleep. But if that’s what you want, then go for that option…

Whatever your sleeping choice, getting any kip at EXIT Festival is tough. The festival doesn’t start till 10pm and finishes at around 6am. Your best bet is a snooze on the City Beach in the afternoon.

Day time fun

When you’ve got a hangover from EXIT Festival in Novi Sad, the City Beach is the place to be. There are DJs doing sets under the bridge and you can just lie in the sun and take in the atmosphere. It was hot. You could go in the River Danube and do watersports, but it looked too brown and grim even for me. I gave it a miss and drank cocktails on the beach and played frisbee instead.

Food

The food in Novi Sad is incredible. I’m not exaggerating, every meal was amazing. The steak feasts on the main strip were so cheap and absolutely incredible. And try the gros for breakfast on your way home, they were delicious too. My normally super health conscious friend ate two in one day they were that good.

You also need to try the restaurant by the entrance to the beach – the pizza, oh my god, it was incredible.

Booze tips

The only alcohol available in there is wine or beer and you can’t take booze in. By the last day I could not stomach another Tuborg – people were just giving their vouchers away.

Oh yeah, that’s the other thing. You have to buy vouchers to spend at the festival. They’re like little coins and you used them at the bars. I can guarantee there’ll be a massive queue on the first night when you try to buy them so make sure you get there in good time to get a beer before the music.

On the way to the arena, which was about a ten minute walk from the house we stopped at a few bars on the way and had an espresso and a Jager shot at each. It was a head mix and sorted us right out.

Try some raki off one of the street vendors too – phewee that stuff will ruin you.

Drugs

Don’t bother. The drug laws in Serbia are strict and so are the door men. They made my friend take her hair down from the clips to check she wasn’t storing stuff in there and my boyfriend pretty much got strip searched. It’s just not worth it when you’ve gone all that way.

Transport

We came in from Zadar, Croatia, which was about an 8-hour coach journey away. This was alright, can’t complain. And after we went on to Hungary, which was great too. It’s easy to access Novi Sad by coach from anywhere really.

Getting around in Novi Sad was easy too. We took a taxi a few times and it was cheap enough, although the prices were definitely premium, but so they should be – all these rich tourists!

EXIT Festival Line Up 2012

Here’s a little reminder…

New Order | Richie Hawtin | Gossip | Wolfmother | Luciano | Miss Kittin | Buraka Som Sistema | Art Department | Maceo Plex | Reboot live | Kenny Larkin | Robert Dietz | Maayan Nidam

EXIT tickets are £95 each, and at the moment you can buy 4 get one FREE!

Be careful

• I fell out of a tree and smashed my phone.
• Then I fell out again and smashed my sunglasses into the side of my nose and had a scabby nose for the festival.
• We took a water pistol and ended up having a water fight that got very aggressive, probably not the best idea.
• Me and my friend went to get red wine for everyone, by the time we got back through the crowd to our friends there was barely any in the cups and more over us.
• Make sure you pick up the beer carrier properly – I dropped four pints on the floor as soon as I bought them.
• There are a few much worse stories about accidents at EXIT not to do with me. I won’t go into them here, but just look after your friends and yourself.

Cool promo video

Odd song choice though?!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc5aqOxjZSc]