Elevate Festival

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The Elevate Festival has been held annually in March since 2017 - in and around Graz's Schloßberg , in previous years the date was at the end of October. For five days, the festival presents discussions and workshops during the day. Unlike many comparable conferences and festivals in Austria, most of them can be attended free of charge. At night, concerts in various locations offer the opportunity to celebrate to the music of national and international artists that moves outside the mainstream. That is why the festival bears the subtitle “Festival for contemporary music, art and political discourse”.

history

The starting point for the idea of ​​combining music and political discourse was the 2003 Exit Space event in the Postgarage on the subject of local cultural policy in Graz . In 2005 the concept was finally expanded into an international festival in and around Graz's Schloßberg. The idea for the name of the festival came to the founders and organizers of the festival - Berhard Steirer, Daniel Erlacher and Roland Oreski - during a ride in the lift of the Schlossberg: Elevator is the English word for elevator, the corresponding verb "to elevate" can be translated and interpreted, u. a. than edify, lift or exalt.

Festival years at a glance

2005: "Independent People / Independent Movements" (1st Festival)
The Elevate Festival first took place in 2005. This year, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was a guest.

2006: "Elevate the Debate"
The topics that were dealt with in 2006 this year revolved largely around free media, video streaming and basic income.

2007: “Elevate Democracy!”
The topics of media, technology and criticism, analysis and perspectives were dealt with in the form of round tables and workshops over four days. This year, the US-American ex-congressman and presidential candidate in 2008, Cynthia McKinney and the US media critic and documentary filmmaker Danny Schechter were among the guests.

2008: "Elevate the Commons"
Percy Schmeiser was one of the guests in 2008.

2009: “Elevate the Crises”.
Guests such as Amy Goodman , Pat Mooney , Christian Felber , Raimund Löw and Anneliese Rohrer spoke .

2010: "Elevate Civil Society"
guests were u. a. Mike Bonanno ( The Yes Men ), Bill McKibben . In 2010, a program entitled Elevate Mediachannel will be broadcast around the clock on the Internet for the first time .

2011: "Elevate the 21st Century"
The discourse program 2011 dealt with the visions of the future that existed and existed for the 21st century. Not only the current status of socially relevant developments was discussed, but also a glimpse into a possible future. The guests included: Johan Galtung , Mark Stevenson, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed and many more

2012: "Elevate the Apocalypse?"
At the Elevate Festival 2012, the question was raised: will the urgently needed change towards solidarity-based economic and lifestyles, respecting ecological boundaries and respecting human rights, be achieved, or will major catastrophes be needed first ? so that fundamental changes are decisively promoted? On three theme days, guests such as Christian Payne, Jacob Appelbaum and Polly Higgins discussed the current situation and possible courses of action.

2013: “Elevate Open Everything?”
The Elevate Festival dealt with the “Open Movement”, whose ideas are to disclose data in a way that enables individuals or groups in a democracy to participate in political processes or to advance technical innovation. Although the origins lie in computer software, the open concept has continued in many areas. The invited guests discussed the ambivalence that new technologies and the ideas of "open everything" bring with them in a time of endangered privacy, Wikileaks and Snowden. They worked on the question of what an openess society would look like if this became a reality. Discourse guests were u. a. Jacob Appelbaum , Birgitta Jónsdóttir and Anne Roth .

2014: “Elevate # 10 - Discourse & Activism”
The 10 years of the Elevate Festival were reflected on. The question was asked what was left of the last few years, analyzes of the present were made and prospects for the future opened up. As at the first Elevate Festival in 2005, political scientist John Holloway gave the opening speech. The guests included the information technologist Micah Lee and the filmmaker Antonino D'Ambrosio .

2015: “Elevate Creative Response!”
The eleventh edition was devoted to the question of how the socio-political challenges of our time can be met through creative thinking and acting. The theme was inspired by Antonino Ambrosio's film Let Fury Have the Hour , which was shown during the festival last year. Ambrosio therefore also gave one of the opening speeches of the 2015 festival in addition to Tadzio Müller.

Elevate Festival 2016 (12th festival, so far in October)
As part of the participation in the festival cooperation “We Are Europe”, the focus of the discourse program 2016 was on the current processes of change in Europe. Among the guests of the discourse were journalist and Wikileaks employee Sarah Harrison , the philosopher and DiEM25 co-founder Srećko Horvat , the French filmmaker Hind Meddeb as well as the professor emeritus for European social policy Birgit Mahnkopf .

Elevate Festival 2017 (13th Festival, March 1st to 5th, 2017)
Big Data, Quantification & Algorithms - Who Makes Decisions in the 21st Century?

Elevate Festival 2018 (14th Festival, February 28 to March 4, 2018)
“Risk and courage” in relation to social problems and changes determine the festival this year. One focus is on the subject of whistleblowing - the controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was also invited to participate in the festival via video stream . The Russian activist group Voina, which operates from exile in the Czech Republic , is also represented in the discourse program. As part of the “We Are Europe” festival cooperation, the Elevate Festival welcomes partners in Graz again in 2018: The TodaysArt Festival from The Hague and the Reworks Festival from Thessaloniki together with the Elevate team curate some sessions in the discourse program.

Elevate Festival 2019 (15th Festival, February 27th to March 3rd, 2019)

This year the focus is on the festival theme of truth in the spectrum of media, language and journalism as well as science, technology and art. A prominent speaker in the discourse program is Pamela Anderson , who initially became known as an actress and model, but has long been using this public for her socio-political concerns as an animal rights activist. Other international activists at the festival are the Nigerian poet and environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey , winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize Right Livelihood Award , and again the Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat , democracy activist at DiEM25 .

Elevate Festival 2020 (16th Festival, March 4-8, 2020)

The climate crisis and the relationship between humans, nature and technological development are the themes of this year's festival. Over four days of discussions, lectures, film screenings and workshops with numerous writers, activists and scientists from all over the world, the festival examines the question of whether the climate crisis is mankind's greatest challenge or rather man himself. The speakers include others the author and philosopher Ariadne von Schirach , the author and documentary filmmaker Douglas Rushkoff and the Kenyan environmental activist Elizabeth Wathuti .

Elevate Awards

Between 2012 and 2015, during the festival, the Elevate Awards were given to people, initiatives and projects that are positive, sustainable and innovative for society. Prizes were awarded in three categories: The Elevate Award Styria, the International Elevate Award and the Elevate Artivism Award. The award winners were selected through audience voting (Elevate Artivism Award and Elevate Award Styria) or by an international jury made up of guests from the previous festival years (International Elevate Award).

Elevate Awards 2012

Category Styria: Hofkollektiv Wieserhoisl

International category: Réseau des femmes pour le développement durable en Afrique (REFDAF)

Artivism category: Susanne Prosegga

Elevate Awards 2013

Category Styria: Open BioLab Graz

International category: Refugee Protest Camp Vienna

Category Artivism: HOAM: ART

Elevate Awards 2014

Category Styria: KAMA Graz

International category: Cryptocat

Category Artivism: Partycipation

Elevate Awards 2015

Category Styria: all sorts of shops

International category: White Helmets

Artivism category: Manu Luksch

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elevate Festival in Graz: Where the discourse pops - derStandard.at. Retrieved March 5, 2020 (Austrian German).
  2. ^ Elevate Association (ed.): ELEVATE! A Manual for Tomorrow / A Manual for Change . Falter Verlag, Graz 2015, ISBN 978-3-85439-566-9 , pp. 16 .
  3. ^ Katharina Wiesler: Elevate Festival: 10 years of uplifting . In: BIORAMA . October 17, 2014 ( biorama.eu [accessed November 12, 2016]).
  4. ↑ dict.cc dictionary :: to elevate :: German-English translation. In: www.dict.cc. Retrieved November 12, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Festival Homepage 2005 , at elevate.at, accessed on February 10, 2019
  6. ↑ Festival Homepage 2006 , at elevate.at, accessed on February 10, 2019
  7. ↑ Festival Homepage 2007 , at elevate.at, accessed on February 10, 2019
  8. ↑ Festival Homepage 2008 , at elevate.at, accessed on February 10, 2019
  9. ↑ Elevate Festival Homepage 2009 , at elevate.at, accessed on February 10, 2019
  10. ↑ Elevate Festival Homepage 2010
  11. ↑ Elevate Festival Homepage 2011
  12. ↑ Elevate Festival Homepage 2012
  13. ↑ Elevate Festival Homepage 2013
  14. ↑ Elevate Festival Homepage 2014
  15. ↑ Elevate Festival 2015 - program preview. In: elevate.at. October 11, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2016 .
  16. ↑ We Are Europe! In: Elevate Festival . October 11, 2016 ( elevate.at [accessed November 11, 2016]).
  17. ↑ Elevate Announcement 2017 , accessed December 14, 2016.
  18. ↑ Graz Elevate Festival 2017 for the first time in March orf.at, December 14, 2016, accessed December 14, 2016.
  19. ↑ Elevate Festival plans to go live with Julian Assange . ( kurier.at [accessed on January 26, 2018]).
  20. ↑ Finished music line-up, details on art and discourse. Retrieved February 9, 2019 .
  21. ↑ "Nature must become part of democracy". Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Festival theme: Human Nature. February 21, 2020, accessed March 5, 2020 .
  23. ^ Elevate Association (ed.): ELEVATE! A Manual for Tomorrow / A Manual for Change . Falter Verlag, Graz 2015, ISBN 978-3-85439-566-9 , pp. 364 .