During the three festival evenings, on what was formerly a country estate on Lake Palić near the city of Subotica, around 10.000 visitors gathered to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and listen to musicians famous even outside the Balkans, such as Laibach or Darko Rundek and his Cargo orchestra.

Trenchtown was set up in 2002 by the civil society organisation Fokus, who used the May Day holiday to give Subotica, a town of rich festival tradition (e.g. the European Film Festival Palić) a new, modern and authentic music event for the 21st century.

The organisers of Trenchtown have proved that even with limited funding, it is possible to create a successful regional version of the nearby Exit, one the of the most famous summer rock festivals in Europe. This has only required efficient use of the advantages of multi-ethnicity (Subotica is home to Serbs, Hungarians, Croats and other nationalities) and the geographic location on the border with Hungary and near Croatia.

For over a decade, the centre of the north Serbian province of Vojvodina, the city of Novi Sad and the Exit festival have been an attractive destination for many Western European tourists eager to listen to international pop and rock celebrities. This July, the performers will include the British bands Manic Street Preachers and Madness, the German Kraftwerk and the American punk icon Patti Smith.

With no strong sponsor, the organisers of Trenchtown have wisely decided to invite not very demanding, but still significant performers from the former Yugoslavia and Hungary, and even some from the rest of the world.

While day tickets to Exit cost 35-40 Euros, entering Trenchtown 09 was possible with just over seven Euros a day.

What Exit and the two years younger Trenchtown have in common is a division into a main stage and several side stages where you can mostly listen to DJs or reggae and ethno performers. Furthermore, both festivals have a varied side programme with film projections and exhibitions with musicians, writers and other artists.

While Exit is held in the unique Petrovaradin baroque fortress, the organisers of Trenchtown found a unique space in  an ethno camp and a former grange in the woods near Palić, a favourite outing spot for the people of Subotica.

During the first evening of Trenchtown 09, the main stage featured the atmospheric Belgrade-based reggae band Kanda Kodža and Nebojša, followed by the sharp-tongued Bosnian rapper Edo Maajka. Finally, there was a treat in Hungarian – the Budapest-based Beastie Boys variant, Belga.

An alternative band from Belgrade called Petrol preceded the star of the second evening, the Slovene experimental band Laibach, one of the ex-Yugoslav performers that managed to make a successful career abroad. Yet the evening was dominated by the Belgrade-based S.A.R.S., authors of this year’s surprise hit in Serbia "Bučav lebac" (“Foul bread”), a sort of ironic portrayal of the country’s social decline. On the final evening, playing between Subotica’s new wave band Pionir 10 and a Belgrade based girl rap-rock group Sajsi, the festival featured its biggest star: Darko Rundek.

Formerly the front man of Zagreb’s influential new wave reggae group Haustor, Rundek continued his career for two decades in Paris with his independent albums, accompanied by the multi-ethnic Cargo orchestra, and managed to achieve cult status in the countries of former Yugoslavia.

For three days the festival enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere, friendly guests, a pleasant mix of the Serbian and Hungarian languages and a slow pace. You could see musicians among the audience, chatting with friends, not five minutes after they had performed on stage. The festival aroma was further sweetened by the smells from the booths offering Serbian hamburger steaks, Hungarian goulash and many other regional specialties.

The festival was perhaps best described by Rundek at the press conference: "Trenchtown is better than Exit”.