“Caring for nature can go along with having fun“
Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia, Ambassador Mr. Sem Fabrizi, Prime Minister of the Provincial Government, Mr. Igor Mirović and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the EXIT Foundation, Mr. Ivan Petrović, visited part of the OPENS Zone at the EXIT Festival (which takes place at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad from 4 – 7 July), where the action of planting trees in several municipalities of Vojvodina is being promoted.
The plan is to plant 10,000 trees, which will require the help of volunteers with a responsible attitude towards the environment. So far, over 500 volunteers have signed up and we hope that in the coming days and weeks that number will be even higher, Ambassador Fabrizi said.
“The European Union is very committed to protecting the environment and has already done a lot with the authorities in Serbia. We have activities related to recycling, waste disposal, the landfill situation and now we have activities in Novi Sad in particular,” said the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia.
He added that environmental protection, in addition to being good for nature, also creates jobs, and that the EU is the largest donor in the field, with € 400 million invested.
The Provincial government is partner of the European Union in the fight for the environment and can learn a lot from European examples, says the institution’s first man, Igor Mirović.
“We promote ideas that have no alternative in our lives, those are the ideas that generally have to change our country in areas that concern all of us,” Mirović says.
With this action, we are creatively attracting young people to take an interest in environmental protection, explains Ivan Petrović from EXIT Foundation.
“Young people want to get involved if given the right opportunity. We have big actions in Vojvodina, that’s why we’re here tonight. We do 100% recycling of plastic and all cans at Exit, and we put environmental topics at the heart of this year’s festival campaign,” says Petrović.
Tonight’s guests of the EXIT Tree Zone walked across the canvas on which a canopy of trees was drawn, and thus symbolically began to make Vojvodina greener. After that, they visited other stands in the OPENS State of EXIT zone and were able to get acquainted with the work of youth organisations and other interesting contents in this part of the Festival. Novi Sad is the Youth Capital of Europe for 2019.
It is still not too late for visitors of the largest music festival in the region to visit the OPENS and Tree Zone, where they can sign up to take part in the action in the autumn. Planting participants gain the opportunity to win tickets to EXIT 2020.
The canvas with painted wood will be erected after the festival in Novi Sad and other cities and will aim to invite citizens to join the action.
The OPENS State of EXIT zone is located above the tunnel at Petrovaradin Fortress, opposite the Reggae stage. All interested in planting trees can also apply by filling out the electronic form on the link https://www.exitfondacija.org/treezone.
Give back to nature – Join, plant a tree!
