The Elevate Festival is an annual festival that takes place around the Schloßberg in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, Austria. The aim of the festival is to create a better understanding of the most important issues of our time and to discuss groundbreaking alternatives, innovative projects, and various initiatives in the realm of civil society, social movements and dedicated activism. Elevate combines contemporary music, art and political discourse. The organizational body is a

Nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. All the discourse and film programme of the festival is free of charge.

History

The starting point for the idea to combine music and political discourse was the Exit-Space event on local cultural policy making in Graz in 2003. In 2005 the concept was expanded into an international festival around the Schloßberg in Graz. The founders and organizers of the festival - Berhard Steirer, Daniel Erlacher and Roland Oreski - had the idea for the festival's name during a ride in the elevator up to the top of the Schloßberg.

By year

2005

For the first time the Elevate Festival took place in 2005. In this year, everything had to do with "Independent People/Independent Movements".

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American List of Internet entrepreneurs, Internet entrepreneur and former Trader (finance), financial trader. He is a Founders of Wikipedia, co-founder of the non-profi ...

was an invited speaker at the Festival.Festival Homepage 2005
/ref>

2006

In 2006, the topic of the festival was "Elevate the Debate". The discussions mainly dealt with free media, live video streaming and basic income.

2007

The topic of 2007's Elevate Festival was "Elevate Democracy!" In 2007,

Cynthia McKinney Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955) is a former American politician. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first African American woman elected to represent G ...

and

Danny Schechter Daniel Isaac Schechter (June 27, 1942 – March 19, 2015) was an American television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic. He wrote and spoke about many issues including apartheid, civil rights, economics, foreign policy, jo ...

were at the festival in Graz.Festival Homepage 2007
/ref>

2008

In 2008, "Elevate the Commons" was the theme of the festival.

Percy Schmeiser Percy Schmeiser (5 January 193113 October 2020) was a Canadian businessman, farmer, and politician. In 1954, he took over the operations of the family owned farm, gas station, and farm equipment dealership. He renamed the farm equipment dealers ...

was one of the guests.Festival Homepage 2008
/ref>

2009

The festival was dedicated to the topic "Elevate the Crises" with guests such as

Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupatio ...

Pat Mooney Pat Mooney (born February 24, 1947) has worked with civil society organizations on international trade and development issues related to agriculture, biodiversity and emerging technologies for over 40 years. Career Pat Mooney had no formal un ...

, Christian Felber, Raimund Löw or Anneliese Rohrer.

2010

The festival featured Mike Bonanno of

The Yes Men The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Through various actions, the Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about problematic social and political issues. To date, t ...

and

Bill McKibben William Ernest McKibben (born December 8, 1960)"Bill Ernest McKibben." ''Environmental Encyclopedia''. Edited by Deirdre S. Blanchfield. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, December 31, 2017. is a ...

among others. The main theme was "Elevate the Civil Society".

2011

Johan Galtung Johan Vincent Galtung (24 October 1930 – 17 February 2024) was a Norwegian sociologist and the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He was the main founder of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in 1959 an ...

Mark Stevenson Mark Stevenson (born 1971) is a London-based British writer, businessman, public speaker and 'reluctant' futurologist, as well as a semi-professional musician and former comedian. Stevenson's first book, '' An Optimist's Tour of the Future'', w ...

, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed looked into the future to explore how to "Elevate the 21st Century".

2012

"Elevate the Apocalypse?": Christian Payne,

Jacob Appelbaum Jacob Appelbaum (born April 1, 1983) is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, artist, Hacking (innovation), hacker and teacher. Appelbaum, who earned his PhD from the Eindhoven University of Technology, first became not ...

, Polly Higgins and others discussed whether we need major catastrophes in order to tackle the challenges of our time.

2013

"Elevate Open Everything?" - guests like

Birgitta Jónsdóttir Birgitta Jónsdóttir (born 17 April 1967) is an Icelandic politician, anarchist, poet, and activist. She was a Member of the Althing (MP) for the Southwest Constituency from 2013 to 2017, representing the Pirate Party, having been elected at t ...

, Anne Roth discussed radical openness in technology, innovation, activism, and politics.

2014

To honour the 10th anniversary of the festival the theme "Elevate #10 – Discourse & Activism" invited scientists like John Holloway, computer engineers like Micah Lee and artists such as

Antonino D'Ambrosio Antonino Pasquale D'Ambrosio (born June 23, 1971), is an Italian-American author, filmmaker, producer, and visual artist. Writing D'Ambrosio is the author of ''Let Fury Have the Hour: Joe Strummer, Punk and the Movement that Shook the World'' ( ...

to draw lessons from the past and look into the future.

2015

"Elevate Creative Response!" - the 11th edition of the festival explored how creative thinking provides avenues to tackle current challenges.

2016

As a result of a European festival cooperation, the theme in 2016 was "We Are Europe" and focused on change processes in Europe. Among the guests were journalist and WikiLeaks activist Sarah Harrison, the philosopher

Srećko Horvat Srećko Horvat (born 28 February 1983) is a Croatian philosopher, author and political activist. The German weekly '' Der Freitag'' called him "one of the most exciting voices of his generation" and he has been described as a "fiery voice of diss ...

, and the French director Hind Meddeb.

2017

The topic the 2017 edition was "Big data, quantification & algorithms - Who will be the decision-makers of the 21st century?".

2018

The role of "Risk/Courage" in the context of societal change will be highlighted during the 2018 festival. With a focus on

whistleblowing Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

the controversial

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

founder

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

will be among the speakers.

2019

The Elevate Festival 2019 explores and debates the concept of "Truth" with guests like animal rights activist

Pamela Anderson Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress, model and media personality. She rose to prominence after being selected as the February 1990 ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month. She went on to make regular appearan ...

, poet

Nnimmo Bassey Nnimmo Bassey (born 11 June 1958) is a Nigerian architect, environmental activist, author and poet, who chaired Friends of the Earth International from 2008 through 2012 and was executive director of Environmental Rights Action for two decades. He ...

, and philosopher

2020

"Human Nature" and the relationship between humans, nature and technological development is the motto of the 2020 Elevate Festival. The philosopher Ariadne von Schirach, the film maker

Douglas Rushkoff Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open-source ...

and the activist Elizabeth Wathuti are among the guests in the discourse program.

Elevate Awards

Between 2012 and 2015, the Elevate Awards were granted to people, organizations, and initiatives which are actively working for social, ecological and/or economical justice. There were three categories: The International Elevate Award, the Elevate Award Steiermark for regional projects in Austria and the Elevate Artivism Award for the threshold between arts and activism.

Elevate Awards 2012

* Elevate Award Steiermark: Hofkollektiv Wieserhoisl * International Elevate Award: Réseau des femmes pour le développement durable en Afrique (REFDAF) * Elevate Artivism Award: Susanne Prosegga

Elevate Awards 2013

* Elevate Award Steiermark: Open BioLab Graz * International Elevate Award: Refugee Protest Camp Vienna * Elevate Artivism Award: HOAM:ART

Elevate Awards 2014

* Elevate Award Steiermark: KAMA Graz * International Elevate Award:

Cryptocat Cryptocat is a discontinued open-source software, open-source Application software, desktop application intended to allow encrypted online chatting available for Microsoft Windows, Windows, OS X, and Linux. It uses end-to-end encryption to secur ...

* Elevate Artivism Award: Partycipation

Elevate Awards 2015

* Elevate Award Steiermark: Allerleihladen * International Elevate Award: White Helmets * Elevate Artivism Award: Manu Luksch

References

External links

Elevate Festival Website

Elevate Festival on Facebook
{{coord missing, Austria Festivals in Graz Festivals established in 2005