Proving that music and politics can still make a popular mix, Serbia’s EXIT Festival has been campaigning to get young voters involved in the country’s electoral process, through poster campaigns and exclusive parties.

EXIT initiated the ‘Get Out To Vote’ campaign after analysis of the first round presidential elections on 20 January, showed a high percentage of abstinence amongst young voters.  The campaign ran in Serbia’s three largest cities – Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš – leading up to the second round of votes on 3 February.

Proving that music and politics can still make a popular mix, Serbia’s EXIT Festival has been campaigning to get young voters involved in the country’s electoral process, through poster campaigns and exclusive parties.

EXIT initiated the ‘Get Out To Vote’ campaign after analysis of the first round presidential elections on 20 January, showed a high percentage of abstinence amongst young voters.  The campaign ran in Serbia’s three largest cities – Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš – leading up to the second round of votes on 3 February.

“Many young people don't believe that elections can really influence their lives, so they don't vote, and because they don't vote, elections are really not influencing their lives,” says EXIT’s Rajko Bozic. “We feel strongly that young people need to shape their own future, but from research of our festival audience during the last few years, we found that half of them were not voting at all.”

In order to prevent fraud, every Serbian voter is marked with ultraviolet spray when voting, and after the elections, EXIT held parties in all three cities, with entrance limited to those whose finger shone under a blacklight.

By also using a series of different ‘No Kidding’ poster slogans, and the EXIT brand as a symbol for positive change, Bozic reports a widespread positive reaction and well attended parties.

"We are currently waiting to receive the voting data to see how successful the campaign was, but we are confident that the percentage of young voters is significantly higher," he says.