Manu Chao pulls biggest audience at EXIT

Serbia | | 14 July 2008

The French born musician and his Radio Bemba Sound System played for just under two hours on the main stage, far exceeding their allocated set time, just like Paul Weller the previous night.

Without doubt the weekend's most energetic performance, in terms of both artist and audience, the band’s upbeat brand of world music, spanning salsa, reggae and ska, proved the perfect party sound track for a Saturday night.

Local Serbs turned out in force for the third night of the festival, swelling numbers in the fortress to more than 60,000 people with many dancing on portaloos to get a better view of the popular star.

The good times continued long into the night as hip hop legend Africa Baambata performed a rare DJ set, which saw a bevy of beauties pulled up on stage by his entourage to further gee up the crowd.

Earlier in the evening, Ukrainian gypsy punks Gogol Bordello got the party started with a typically frenetic show. Singer Eugene Hutz bounded around stage with his customary wild abandon, smashing bottles and guitars at leisure before covering VF’s photographer in red wine.

The drinks flew the other way during Juliette And The Licks, the photo pit being showered by beer from the crowd as the former Hollywood actress encouraged the crowd to go crazy.

The US rockers turned in an impassioned performance, highlights including a barn storming ‘Sticky Honey’ and a cheeky cover of disco classic ‘Hot Stuff’.

Juliette spent more than five minutes on stage once the band had finished, blowing kisses into the adoring crowd and throwing one young fan her head scarf, who promptly burst into hysterical tears.
    
However, while the main stage saw some of the best performances of the weekend, the same could not be said of the dance arena.

Kruder & Dorfmeister played a lacklustre Summer Sessions set, which failed to live up to last year’s headline show at The Big Chill, while Miguel Migs and Lisa Shaw’s live show was poorly attended as punters flocked to Manu Chao.

But as the sun came up, the party truly kicked off in the 20,000 capacity outdoor arena as Axwell rocked the crowd with his feel good house music. Inevitably the loudest cheers came when he dropped an extended mix of recent hit ‘I Found You’.

After a full on night of party music, the Positive Vibrations reggae stage proved a great way to wind down. The Brixton collective have hosted the stage at EXIT since the very beginning and know exactly how to soothe broken bodies for the final few hours of the festival.

EXIT continues through Sunday night with performances by reformed legends Sex Pistols and Ministry plus many more. Stay posted.

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