Weeks After Sharing Lineup, EXIT Festival Announces Cancellation of 2020 Event

The announcement arrives only weeks after the festival's organizers announced its initial postponement to August.

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Weeks after sharing an expansive lineup, organizers of Serbia's EXIT Festival have pulled the plug on its 2020 iteration due to the impact of COVID-19. The announcement arrived weeks after they announced its initial postponement to August.

Representatives took to social media to share the solemn—if unsurprising—news. "As you may know, earlier this spring, the Serbian Prime Minister had asked EXIT not to cancel the festival but rather postpone it to mid-August," they wrote. "At that time, the number of new daily cases was on a steady sharp decline and even our most cautious health experts believed that zero number of cases would be reached in June, almost two months before the new festival date in August. During this time, the whole of Serbia was also fully reopened, with no restrictions in an open-air public gathering and all borders were open."

"Unfortunately, during the past few weeks, there has been the development of the epidemic with an increase of new daily cases in several municipalities in Serbia that were put under strict restrictions," the statement continues. "The EXIT team has followed the current situation of the epidemic closely, always keeping in mind the safety and health of all visitors, artists and team members. That is why it was decided first to drastically reduce the festival capacity in order to make sure that everything would be as safe as possible."

Primed for appearances at this year's fest were Amelie Lens, Black Coffee, Boris Brejcha, Laibach, Meduza, Nina Kraviz, Ofenbach, Paul Kalkbrenner, Robin Schulz, and Tale Of Us, among others. In lieu of the in-person event, the promoters are planning to host a virtual festival called "Life Stream."