Serbia Rocks
The Petrovaradin fortress towers above the concrete tower blocks and socialist geometry of downtown Novi Sad, Serbia's second city. Petrovaradin was constructed in the 17th century by the Austrians as a bulwark against the Ottoman Empire, a masterpiece of defensive engineering the fortress was redundant by the time it was completed. Instead of an outpost for embattled Christendom Petrovaradin became Serbia's premier prison, over the years the elaborate dungeons under the fortress held Black George, the pig farmer who founded the Serbian monarchy and a teenage Tito.
Today Petrovaradin plays host to Eastern Europe's largest dance event, the annual Exit festival. The festival was founded by youth groups opposed to the Milosevic regime in the lead up to the presidential elections of 2000. That year the festival lasted for 100 days, featuring speeches by opposition leaders interspersed with frenetic musical acts. The event succeeded in mobilising young people to vote against Milosevic and ultimately to take to the streets to protest against the regime's manipulation of the democratic process. Exit attracted young Serbians disillusioned with Milosevic's mix of pragmatic nationalism and gangsterism, both politically and culturally at a time when pro-Milosevic television stations pumped out hardcore pornography every night and access to Western music was limited.
Exit also provided a refuge from turbo-folk, the genre which combined old nationalist folk songs with techno music, providing the theme tunes for Milosevic's rule. The crown queen of turbo-folk, Ceca was married to the notorious war criminal Arkan, but his assassination did nothing to curb her popularity. Turbo-folk remains hugely popular in Serbia and Montenegro, especially amongst the middle aged. This July Svetozar Marovic the Montenegrin President proudly announced that he would be relaxing to Ceca's new album during his holiday.
Just as turbo-folk endures, so does its nationalist fan base. Novi Sad's municipal council is controlled by Vojislav Seselj's ultra right-wing Serb Radical Party, the party defeated the centre left Democratic Party in last year's elections thanks to the votes of Serb refugees, expelled from Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia. They constitute 30% of Novi Sad's population and sought candidates pledged to defend the interests of Serbs. The SRS detest the presence of the Exit festival in their city; its politics and music are the alien antithesis of their nationalist ideology. Last year the festival's organisers were arrested by the police, this year Novi Sad's mayor threatened to ban the festival if it held a minute's silence to commemorate the Srebrenica massacre, the organisers backed down.
The organisers are used to intimidation, they now take bomb threats in their stride, regular festival goers are pleased to report that they no longer experience beatings at the hands of the police. Many Serbian musicians have had a tough decade, their touring opportunities ruined by sanctions, compared to the dark days of the mid-1990s the harassment of the SRS is a minor problem.
The 50,000 people attending Exit this year came from all over Europe, several hundred came from Britain, most are oblivious to the visible bomb damage around Novi Sad, but they faced no ill will from their fellow Serbian revellers. However, many young Serbs are still ambivalent regarding recent events; few understand why the NATO bombings took place and those travelling to Britain are bitter about the three month wait for a visa. The post-Milosevic optimism is in decline, as the broad coalition which ousted Milosevic has fractured. To be a young Serbian looking culturally and politically to the West is to be in a minority, like their British counterparts they can buy wristbands that promise to make poverty history, not that such sentiments help much when your national currency is so weak that it is impossible to exchange abroad.
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