Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić appears to have given the green light to EXIT Festival to take place in some capacity this August.

The festival, which is Serbia's largest festival and pulled in around 200,000 visitors last year, previously announced that it will not take place in its usual format in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Brnabić has called on organisers not to completely pull the event. She said that the improvement of the health situation in Serbia and a number of other countries across Europe had led Serbia's health experts to suggest that the event should go ahead.

"We recommend to move the festival to August because we expect that the [pandemic] situation in the whole of Europe will be totally under control by then," Brnabić said speaking at an appearance in Novi Sad, where the festival is held each year. EXIT had been due to originally take place from July 9-12.

Organisers welcomed the latest words from Brnabić and Serbia's health experts and said that, if required, they would reduce the usual capacity of the event and take all precautionary measures.

"The festival in its full format with 55,000 per day and 40 stages will probably not return until 2021," EXIT founder Dušan Kovačević told IQ, "but we are delighted to hear that the health situation is becoming increasingly better and that we'll be able to mark the 20th anniversary of EXIT this summer with a meaningful and safe event.

"Health and safety of the audience and everyone involved at the festival is our top priority. We will work closely with health officials in order to take all precautionary measures and make the festival in August as safe as possible. Between fear and optimism we always choose the later and we're thrilled that we will have the opportunity to be together with our fans and favourite artists this summer."

Full details of how exactly the festival will be able to take place and who might be able to play the event are yet to be revealed.

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