Four days of electronic music on the ramparts of Petrovaradin Fortress above the Danube: one of Europe's best festival sites and among the most affordable major festivals on the continent.
Exit Festival takes place at Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad — a 18th-century Habsburg fortress whose ramparts, tunnels, and open-air terraces become 25+ stages across four nights. The festival is technically in Novi Sad (90 minutes by bus or train from Belgrade) but most international visitors base themselves in Belgrade and travel in for the event. The fortress setting is Exit's defining quality: dancing on a 300-year-old rampart with the Danube visible below is not a generic festival experience.
The lineup focuses on electronic music — techno, house, drum and bass, and trance — alongside major pop and rock headliners on the Main Stage. Previous headliners include David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Iggy Pop, and Nick Cave. Day tickets start at approximately €35, making Exit one of the most affordable four-day festivals in Europe for the scale of production. Belgrade's hostel scene is strong and cheap: dorm beds in the Savamala neighbourhood cost €10–€16 per night. The Belgrade-Novi Sad shuttle runs specifically for festival attendees from the main bus station.
Party hostels within reach of 's main celebrations. Ranked by guest rating.
Day-by-day breakdown
Shuttle buses from Belgrade's main bus station (Lasta terminal) run from 6pm with return services at 6am, 7am, and 8am. The festival runs from 6pm to 6am. The fortress layout creates natural stage areas: the Main Stage on the lower plateau, the Dance Arena in the moat (a 20,000-capacity outdoor techno stage), and dozens of smaller spaces in the rampart tunnels. Beer on site costs approximately €2–€3: extraordinarily cheap by festival standards.
Belgrade's own Kalemegdan Fortress at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers is free to enter and offers views over both rivers. The Savamala district below the fortress has Belgrade's best independent bars and studios. The Republic Square (Trg republike) and the Knez Mihailova pedestrian street connect the fortress to the city's main shopping and cafe strip. Ćevapi (grilled minced meat) with bread from a local cevabdžinica costs RSD 400–600 (approximately £2.80–£4.20).
Arriving in Novi Sad before the festival evening allows time to see the fortress in daylight: the views from the ramparts are different — and the scale of the site is clearer — when it is not dark and full of 20,000 people. Novi Sad's old town (around Zmaj Jovina pedestrian street) has a cluster of cafes and restaurants. A meal in Novi Sad costs 20–30% less than in Belgrade.
Belgrade's splavovi — clubs built on barges moored along the Sava River — operate independently of Exit Festival and run most nights in summer from midnight to dawn. The concentration of splavovi in New Belgrade's riverbank area is the city's party infrastructure that continues when the festival is not running. Entry costs RSD 500–1,000 (approximately £3.50–£7).
Pre-booked private transfers and shared shuttles for your arrival.
