♨Hi there, Steemians!♨
The EXIT FESTIVAL 2017 is approaching fast, it is going to take place on 6th to 9th July, unfortunately I wont be attending it this summer, but today I'm going to share my experience when I went to the EXIT FESTIVAL 2016 last summer. I participated in the full festival which included the main festival in Serbia and a Sea dance festival in Montenegro.
⭐The Background⭐
I had just turned 18 that summer and I was finally free to travel wherever I desired. Me and my homies packed our shit and went on a Euro-trip in 28th of June for a month. The whole trip was the best travel experience I've ever had. I met plenty of new great people, developed some social skills, survival skills and management skills. I recommend every youngster to try out living alone, depending only on himself, for a month in a foreign country. One of our main destinations was the EXIT FESTIVAL, we met a Serbian dude back in 2015 in exchange programs, so we stayed at his house almost for 15 days, because it was very near to the festival. Here's us at the Warsaw train station in the beginning of our trip:
⭐The day before the festival⭐
The main festival part was taking place in an old fortress - Petrovaradin fortress (look it up)
Everyone was allowed the way up there a day before the festival started, even without tickets. So if anyone is reckless enough, they can try to spend a night in some shady corner in hope that they'll get to visit the festival for free!
It was comparatively quiet that day, we symbolically walked through the stage places and went up the fortress to have some dinner in the restaurant there, the food, prices and the view was AMAZING!
⭐Day 1⭐
Day 1 to me was more like exploring all the stages, looking out for whatever I prefer the most. I ended up most of the time at the Reggae stage, went to the main stage to see STORMZY and raved the rest of the night at Trance stage or Electro stage.
The Fortress was packed with people, the fortress was filled with 220k people, A FORTRESS! It was my first festival so I wasn't really 100% comfortable, I felt confused most of the time. But don't get me wrong, the atmosphere there was great and I had a wonderful time! Of course, we were there till the morning, and went home only at 06:00. And when the light came up, the real mess started to show. I wouldn't want to be one of the cleaners after the festivals, here's few pictures of what it looked like:
Adding to that, the morning was really beautiful, although my legs were killing me, I enjoyed the walk home, as well the national Serbian breakfast cuisine - Burek! They make them only in 08:00 in the morning, and I can assure you whether I was high on dopamine or on sleep deprivation - IT WAS ABSOLUTELY GREAT! It was gigantic and they gave yoghurts with it!
🔥Day 2 - Wiz Khalifa🔥
Day 2 for me was all about seeing Wiz, I was hour early to his performance and tried to fight my way to the front of the pack. Although he didn't perform my favorite song - Medicated, he was still amazing! Here's few pictures of him on the stage!
⭐3 Days of Sea Dance⭐
We went to Montenegro by bus, which was included in the EXIT full ticket pack, Sea Dance was definitely more chill. It didn't have any massive people swarms and crowds. It was by the Adriatic Sea, it was surrounded by many mountains, it was truly beautiful place to spend a weekend, not even talking about the music festival! The best part in my opinion was living in tents for those days, as it was my first experience to enjoy music festival like that, I felt connected to the nature of the festival, made me more engaged with the community and atmosphere there. Here's what it looked like when we arrived and my buddy Arturs by the bay:
⭐The Unfortunate Event⭐
Unfortunately on the main day of the Sea Dance Festival a great thunderstorm approached the camp and most of the day's performances were cancelled. It was a total chaos, tents were flying away, people were left with no roof above their head, no clothes and were forced to leave the festival.
⭐What if it was a gift?⭐
Although a lot of sorrow happened that day, we had a Montenegrian friend help us set up the tent and it withholded the massive thunderstorm, we took some people in our tent and squished together, almost forcing us to communicate and befriend each other. We met new friends, had great conversations under the tent and met a little wild cat, who was super playful with us. Also the view for few seconds after the storm was breathtaking the picture maybe isn't the best representation of the feelings I had at that moment:
⭐Continuing the journey and a look back at the festival⭐
After we arrived back in Serbia, we slept the night and went to continue our Euro-trip to the black sea. Looking back at the festival, I definitely recommend everyone to visit not only EXIT, but any other music or art festival. It brings a lot more emotions and experience than it is written on the brochure.
Let's make a conversation!
