Christopher BarrettThe Great Pyramids of Giza formed a spectacular backdrop for the inaugural Starlight Festival, the closing event in an international series promoted by the team behind Serbia’s EXIT Festival.
The sold-out event, which took placed on 9-10 October drew fans from 114 countries to see performances by a line-up that included Charlotte de Witte, Michael Bibi, Adriatique, Indira Paganotto and Enrico Sangiuliano. Starlight is claiumed to have been the first multi-day, multi-stage electronic music festival staged at the famous Egyptian site.
The production was designed by Sila Sveta, with the light show designed to create an optical illusion that made the pyramids appear to float above the main stage.
The event was the last stop on a global tour by the EXIT Festival team who announced last year that they would not be staging the event in its long-term home in Novi Sad.
In 2024, mass demonstrations took place in Serbia after 16 people were killed when a roof collapsed at a newly renovated train station in Novi Sad. Many Serbians blamed the collapse on corruption linked to President Aleksandar Vucic and the neo-liberal SNS party. EXIT publicly aligned itself with the protestors and was later stripped of more than €1.5 million in government funding and government-controlled sponsorship.
Speaking to Access All Areas earlier this year, EXIT’s Dušan Kovačević and Ivan Milivojev announced their plans for keeping the event brand alive: “We’re going on the road. What we’re calling an EXIT World Tour is not a replacement for the festival at the Petrovaradin Fortress, that’s irreplaceable. But until we can return home, we’ll activate the brand globally through showcases and new-format events, working with independent partners in different territories.”
Alongside Sila Sveta, other key partners involved in the Starlight Festival project included P+US, Venture Lifestyle’s electronic music platform. It is set to return to the historic site for a second edition on 5-6 November 2027.