The
first international music festival ever in Yugoslavia was held in Novi
Sad inside the walls of a two hundred years old Petrovaradin Fortress,
which proved to be an excellent move, since there are quite few music
festivals in Europe that could be proud of having such an exclusive location.
Some 250 000 people attended during the nine days. The whole setting was
composed out of 5 stages, plus an improvised fortress cinema and a theater.
Here's a quick overall look:
1) REGGAE STAGE
Actually
not a stage in a real sense, since it included only a beach DJ cabin with
little flash lights, couple of speakers, two turntables and a microphone.
But it was wonderfully hosted by Jamaican JukeBox, a DJ crew from Eindhowen,
Netherlands, who played roots reggae from the early afternoons until the
late mornings, every single day. This was a continious non-stop positive
vibrations party, a little music generator which connected all other stages
with live performing. Lots of greetings to Ank Justice SteadySpear, a
Rastafarian photographer and a poet, who beautifully vocalised the whole
reggae setting with his improvisations on the mic. Ank is the editor of
an art web magazine at www.iota.tv.
2) DJ STAGE
Set somewhere in the centre of the Fortress, between two bridges and not too far from Reaggae or Main stage, this was an excellent location for the DJ stage, with lasers and video mix projections on the walls. The acts included James Fierce, 4 Hero, Bentley Rhytm Ace, DJ Yellow, DJ Lorca, Tim Simenon (aka Bomb The Bass), DJ Rootsman, Fluke, Billy Nasty, DJ Antoine Clamaran, DJ Cherry Bomb, DJ Brenda Rusell, and a number of local dj acts.
4Hero and Tim Simenon really did play powerful sets, but in overall, the DJ stage could have been better. Yugoslavia does have a strong techno scene with some highly respected local DJs, but the audience sometimes seems not to be having found its place, floating between the underground and the most brutal mainstream. To use a marxist term, the class stratification has yet to be done in this domain of music in Yugoslavia. A small exception is the drumnbass scene, which is not big, but remains very compact and influental.
3) DJ ava
A smaller part of the DJ stage. Highlights: Freeride culture, Belgrade's best drumnbass outfit. Also DJs from Tilos Radio from Budapest.
4) Rock Stage
Not a very big stage, but a one that featured some interesting performances, including Kosmos Stasmos (Belgrade), Kukuriku Street (Croatia), Vlatko Stefanovksi Trio (Macedonia), Sarajevo Drum Orchestra, Trottel Stereodream Experience (Budapest), Vroom (Belgrade), and lots of others.
5) MAIN STAGE
The
biggest stage at the Festival, actually the only real stage, with 80kW
of speakers, 20kW monitoring, with a huge light set with 22 moving multicolor
light heads. Some 20 to 30 0000 people attended this stage every night.
Let us take it night by night:
- 6th of july: The opening night. Anastasia, an etno-electro band from Macedonia played one of the best gigs at the whole festivals. Van Gogh from Belgrade with a usual pretentious and somewhat exciting performance. Finley Quaye sounded like a 2nd rate bar singer. Nothing much for the opening night.
- 7th of july: Disciplin A Kitschme, London/Belgrade based trio that playes live drumnbass. Banco de Gaia, notable techno/etno/rock producer and musician from UK played an inspiring set.
-
8th of july: Maximum Roach, a hard rock/hip hop act from London, with
a lead singer from Apollo 440. Around 00:30 came Roni Size who did a huge,
three and a half an hour set that blasted the first rows of the audience.
Size and MC Dynamite later on continued the party on the Reggae Stage
until 6:00am.
-9th of july: Darko Rundek from an ex Yugoslavian band Houstor came on stage. A nice mixture of reggae and Balcan etno.
-10th of july: Dennis Alcapone & Charmax Players Band. After that, Max Romeo ruled the stage with a soulful performance. The Reggae stage, naturally, was open until the late morning.
-11th of july: Cubismo from Zagreb. Osibisa from Ghana came with their hit "Sunshine Day" and really moved the crowd. Tony Allen, ex drummer of the late legendary Fela Kuti, slowed down the paste with his psychodelic afro groove.
-12 of july: Intruder, electro band from Belgrade. Kosheen from Bristol came on stage after. It was the biggest crowd that night, but Kosheen did a poor show, playing less than an hour.
-13th of july: E play, a girl rock band from Belgrade. Also Sunshine, a hip hop act from Belgrade. Around midnight came Luke Slater with a fantastic performance, that unfortunatelly didn't last much longer than Kosheen's. Of course, continious party at the Reggae stage, with Sian Evans from Kosheen taking the mic at one point. Kosheen got heavily drunk in Novi Sad, and they stayed a day more.
-14th of july: Closing night with Yugoslavian bands playing. Eyesburn from Belgrade, a hard core/reggae act with huge amount of energy. Also Partibrejkers, one of the legendary rocknroll bands from Belgrade.
In an overall perspective, EXIT NOISE SUMMER FEST 2001 was a good pioneer move and an huge succes. Positive energy floated above the walls of The Petrovaradin Fortress, and for those brief nine days people in Yugoslavia felt their future seems unlimited.
See you next year - Novi Sad, The Petrovaradin Fortress.
