So Wednesday night I took an overnight train from Budapest to Novi Sad, which was interesting to say the least. Just about everyone on the train was heading to Exit festival, and as I suspected, I didn’t get any sleep. The train was absolutely packed. One thing most people don’t realize is that in many parts of Eastern-Europe, it is normal for trains to over book, so you may get stuck sitting on the floor on a 8+ hour train ride. As the train pulled into Budapest station, and the track number was listed on the timetable, there was a mad scramble of about 1500 people to get to the train to obtain a seat. Luckily the Britts and I were able to get a cabin, although it was meant for 8-people, and we squeezed 10 in, which was somewhat uncomfortable but better than sitting in the isle on the ground. 

The train ride was filled with lots of beer, music played via a portable i-pod dock, peeing out the windows (as it was too much of a mission to step over people and get to the washrooms), and lots of anticipation for the coming festival weekend.

We arrived in Novi Sad at around 6am. My Serbian friend that set up an apartment rental for me, wasn’t going to be in Novi Sad (she lives in Belgrade) until 8:30am. So I sat around for a couple hours at the station and went to a near by café for some breakfast. I had a traditional Serbian dish called Burek, which is like a flakey bread filled with meat, cheese, and mushrooms. Once my Serbian got in she took me to the apartment, which was only about a 10-minute walk from the train station. She showed me in, and then left to stay at her other cousins’ apartment. From there I passed out for a couple hours until my friend Angela (from Toronto) called me up to say she arrived at the station in Novi Sad. So I walked back to the station to take her and two Macedonian guys (she had met on the train) back to the apartment. We then all took a nap for a couple more hours, before getting ready to go out. We then went out for some delicious Cevapi (my favorite Serbian dish, consisting of spiced mini sausage type peaces of meat, put into a bun).

Thursday was the first night of the festival, and my god did it start off with a bang. The first act we watched was Lilly Allen, and she was awesome! I really like her productions. She preformed most of her hits, as well as some really cool drum & bass remixes of her tracks.  She also preformed Britney Spears – Womanizer and in my opinion she did it better than Britney.

After Lilly, we stayed at main stage to check out a bit of The Roots Manuva which was quite live as well. After watching the Roots for a while we wandered around the fortress checking out a bunch of the smaller stages. There are about 15-20 small stages, and when I say small I mean only 5000-10,000 people instead of 50,000 people watching. It’s a shame that you can’t be in more places at once, because these smaller stages with less-well-known artists had some great talent none the less, but I’m not about to miss out on someone like Steve Lawler playing for 50,000+ people, for them.

Speaking of Steve Lawler playing for 50,000+ people, he was the next act we moved on to see at around 1:15am in the Dance arena. Steve Lawler was playing head to head with Lee Burridge and it was a mammoth set, filled with deep tech and tribal house. Absolutely amazing set all around, with the highlight probably being the finale which consisted on Dubfire – Grindhouse (Planet Terror Mix) being mixed into a Michael Jackson’s – Thriller.  

After Lawler and Burridge came Sasha and Digweed spinning head to head. We stayed around for about an hour of there set, before calling it a night. I quite enjoyed their set as well, however I realized there are three more days of partying and that I should probably pace my self. I was a little disappointed that I missed Caspa & Rusco (awesome dubstep dj’s) but we did catch 10 minutes of Sub Focus & Mc A.D. throw down some bomb D&B while leaving as we passed the main stage.

Earlier on while wandering around the fort I ended up meeting this cute Serbian chica. We hit things off pretty well, and would probably be hanging out with her right now if I didn’t find out she was only 16. Sadly at finding out her age I said it had been a pleasure and that I hoped to see her in a few years. So tonight the search continues for my Serbian wife lol.

On the walk home we (me and Ang) picked up some freshly cooked corn on the cob and Serbian style burgers (absolutely scrumptious). We ended up getting lost on the walk home, and what should have taken 10-15 minutes ended up taking an hour or so. 

Aaron

“Getting down to business, so you can get to the business of getting down”