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Green Fest, a one-day music festival which is being organized by the State Of Exit the concert agency Live Nation and Tuborg, will be held on Wednesday 2nd of July 2008 in the Belgrade Arena.

Franz Ferdinand, Cypress Hill, The Raveonettes

Green Fest, a one-day music festival which is being organized by the State Of Exit the concert agency Live Nation and Tuborg, will be held on Wednesday 2nd of July 2008 in the Belgrade Arena.

At this year’s Green Fest festival, which is the second Green Fest to take place, currently one of the most popular bands from Great Britain, Franz Ferdinand will perform, as well as Latino-American hip-hop legends from the West Coast Cypress Hill and the Raveonettes, a popular new-age Danish rock band.

Promotional ticket sales for Green Fest of 1290 Dinars begin on Monday the 24th of March at www.exitfest.org. The number of promotional tickets will be limited and the normal price of tickets will be about 40% higher.

Franz Ferdinand

For now, apart from Green Fest and only taking part in three other festivals, Franz Ferdinand are spending their time practicing and working on their new album, announced for release in October of this year. The third album is still under a veil of mystery. Rumour has it that it could be named “Favourite Lie” and that the first single might be “What She Came For”, but considering that we are talking about Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Bob Hardy and Paul Thomson, who are now under the influence of Afrobeat, no one can know for sure what to expect.

The band’s performance at Exit 06 was, by the choice of 15 critics of the web magazine Popboks, voted as the best concert of 2006. “A furious and technically impeccable gig, coloured with performance-enhanced confidence showcased the essence of the band: in the case of Franz Ferdinand, rock & roll is firstly fun, but fun with a critical understanding of pop culture and highly rare dose of being able to use the mechanics of pop in a fresh and unique manner” – was written about the justification of this choice.

The most popular British and leading world indie-rock lineup, Franz Ferdinand had already at the start of their career made a place for themselves in the history of the pop scene as a band with the quickest rise to success, seeing as that between their formation in 2001 and their first big hit, the maxi-single “Darts of Pleasure”, only two years went by.

They collectively came together to make music that girls will like and make them dance. Considering that they were creating under the influence of artistic bands of the new-wave epoch at the end of the seventies, dark and uncommunicative Joy Division and the innovative Gang of Four, it’s a real enigma that they managed to succeed in their intentions, thanks partially to their premonition of wanting to sound like Donna Summer or Prince.

The independent record label “Domino” in 2004 released their self-titled album which debuted at number 3 on the British top list while the powerful Epic Records released it to the American market. The single “The Dark Side of the Matinee” brought a considerable amount of success to the band, a single that became a mega hit on radio stations and in clubs. The video for this single, with it’s unique photography done in a grey-green colour scheme, separated them from the trend of global productions and showcased a great artistic potential which they justified with the follow-up hit singles “Take Me Out”, “Michael” and “This Fire”.

After years on the road, in 2005 they released their second album “You Could Have It So Much Better” which was followed by the hit singles “Do You Want To” and “Walk Away”. The rest of their story continues with every-day British themes such as wages, politics, weather forecasts, wild antics of rock dinosaurs and of course, love, in a recognizable punk-pop-psycho-disco fashion with which they have thrown the world on its knees.

Cypress Hill

Rumour has it that Cypress Hill will release a, as yet un-named, album but regardless of current activities, announcements and critique, this is one of this bands that, wherever it goes, has a gigantic fan base that knows that these west side boys bring with them a fiery atmosphere. Last year, B-Real, Sen Dog, DJ Muggs and Eric Bobo performed as part of the Rock the Bells tour with Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and Rage Against the Machine.

Local crowds had the opportunity to see the band at the fourth Exit and one of the best parties and convincingly the largest attendance ever recorded was at this concert. “Serbia! You REALLY know how to party!” yelled out B-Real as he conveyed the band’s excitement directly to the crowds.

The recognisable style of Cypress Hill, which they have developed during the 90’s, varies from relaxed Latin rhythms to angry hard-core guitar riffs.
Lead by the production capabilities of the charismatic DJ Muggs and the authentic rhymes of B-Real, Cypress Hill have become one of most influential bands on the scene.

That which has made them known even to people outside the rap music circle is their commitment to legalizing marijuana which is a recurring theme in their songs.

After the cult success of the single “How Could I Just Kill a Man”, their debut album quickly followed in 1991 and two years later came “Black Sunday” which catapulted them among the stars thanks to the hit single “Insane in the Brain”. Their popularity brought them much closer to a white audience which resulted in more frequent appearances alongside alternative rock bands and appearances on larger festivals such as Lollapalooza. Their third album, “Temple of Doom” (1995) portrays them in a calmer yet darker light, without a stand-out hit which critics and fans greeted half-heartedly. In the next three years the band went through personal changes and solo moves only to return in 1998 with their album “IV”. In 2000 the double-album “Skull and Bones” is released which showed the band in two different lights; on the one hand classic, leisurely hip-hop and on the other, a rock-orientated, aggressive sound. The single “Superstar” was a big MTV hit and directed the band toward the crossover scene, which they showed on their next album “Stoned Riders” (2001). In 2004 they released “Till Death Do Us Part” on which they played with Jamaican reggae and dub influences, with which they went back to their original roots.

The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes always manage to move boundaries and surprise not only the crowds but music critics alike and as a result every new album is followed by numerous articles in popular music magazines. Rolling Stone, NME, Q Magazine and many others, in every new issue devote a substantial amount of time to the popular Danish band as a fresh rock sound that is already becoming a trademark of the rock & roll scene in northern Europe. An authentic, if somewhat dark tone with a nostalgic, yet clean, 60’s and 70’s rock & roll tones which follows an intensive guitar sound and lyrics full of raw emotion and void of all possible mainstream notions, is an overall sound that, with every new release, the Raveonettes add something new.

Beside their appearance, the image of the charming pop-rock duo is partly a result of their relationship with the public and the announcements they make in which they hide nothing, nor do they mystify the creative process which has brought them only success. Ambitious, fresh and very energetic and powerful live, this band is highly sought after and actively performing.

At the end of last year The Raveonettes released their fourth studio album “Lust, Lust, Lust” and have marked 2008 by touring all over Europe. With great anticipation we await their arrival on the 2nd of July when the tireless duo will present themselves at the Belgrade Arena with their new album and biggest hits from the past three albums.

It’s time for a little creative noise, bare emotions, unnamed chaos and a lot of good, unusual, fresh yet at the same time old fashioned rock & roll.