Max SteventonEXIT Festival will stage new multi-day event Starlight Festival in Egypt this October.
The event will span more than five stages and zones and will include a virtual reality experience first introduced at Expo Dubai. It is scheduled for 9-10 October at a location near the Great Pyramids of Giza, while opening and closing events will take place at venues across Cairo on the 8 and 11 October.
EXIT’s organisers first announced they would stage an event in Egypt last October as part of a newly formed world tour. This followed the closure of the original EXIT Festival in Serbia due to political pressure.
Mass protests in Serbia intensified in 2024 after 16 people died when a roof collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad, EXIT Festival’s home city. Many protesters linked the incident to alleged corruption under President Aleksandar Vucic and the ruling SNS party. After publicly supporting the protests, EXIT said it lost more than €1.5 million in government funding and state-linked sponsorship.
Following its 25th anniversary edition last summer, EXIT announced it would pause the festival in Serbia and instead focus on international events, expanding the brand to countries including Montenegro, India and Egypt.
Starlight’s lineup includes Charlotte de Witt, Michael Bibi, Adriatique, Vintage Culture, Pete Tong, WhoMadeWho and Enrico Sangiuliano. Additional regional and international acts are also expected to perform.
Organisers said the event site has been developed in line with heritage protection requirements and that performances will not take place directly at the pyramids, which will serve as a backdrop from a designated location.
Venture Lifestyle (VLS), an Emirati-Lebanese entertainment and hospitality company based in Egypt, is co-producing the event through its electronic music platform P+US. The company has previously produced projects including Anyma’s Quantum Genesys event near the Great Pyramids of Giza.
EXIT Festival CEO and founder Dušan Kovačević said, “EXIT has always been known for combining world-class entertainment with a strong social mission, which in this case will be dedicated to celebrating Egypt’s extraordinary cultural heritage to a global audience. We are especially pleased to have Venture Lifestyle as our partner on this project, given their reputation for delivering exceptional events in the region.”