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

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, 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) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

. All the discourse and film programme of the festival is free of charge. The performing artists at Elevate usually present an eclectic array of styles, beyond conventions and the mainstream.

History

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". In 2005

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedi ...

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.
/ref> 2007
The topic of 2007's Elevate Festival was "Elevate Democracy!" In 2007

Cynthia McKinney Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955) is an American politician, academic, and conspiracy theorist. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first African American ...

and

Danny Schechter Daniel Isaac "Danny" 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 po ...

were at the festival in Graz.Festival Homepage 2007
/ref> 2008
In 2008 "Elevate the Commons" was the theme of the festival. Percy Schmeiser 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,

Pat Mooney Pat Roy Mooney, for more than thirty years, has worked with civil society organizations on international trade and development issues related to agriculture, biodiversity and emerging technologies. He was born and lived on the Canadian prairies f ...

, Christian Felber, Raimund Löw or Anneliese Rohrer. 2010
The festival featured Mike Bonanno ( The Yes Men) 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 (born 24 October 1930) is a Norwegian sociologist who is 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 and served as its ...

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'', wa ...

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed (born 1978) is a British investigative journalist, author and academic. He is editor of the crowdfunded investigative journalism platform INSURGE intelligence. He is a former environment blogger for ''The Guardian'' from ...

looked into the future to explore how to "Elevate the 21st Century". 2012
"Elevate the Apocalypse?": Christian Payne, Jacob Appelbaum, 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 Jacob Appelbaum,

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 th ...

, 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 On December 15, 2022, Twitter suspended the accounts of ten journalists who have covered the company and its owner, Elon Musk. They included reporters Keith Olbermann, Steven L. Herman, and Donie O'Sullivan (journalist), Donie O'Sullivan, and jo ...

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, and the French director

Hind Meddeb Hind Meddeb is a French-Tunisian journalist and documentary film director. Based in Paris, she works both in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. In her films and journalistic writing, she has presented social protests of young people and th ...

. 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 the controversial WikiLeaks founder

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

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, poet Nnimmo Bassey, and philosopher Srećko Horvat. 2020 AdenikeOladosu2020-ElevateFestival

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

Ariadne von Schirach Ariadne von Schirach (born 1978 in Munich) is a German philosopher, writer, journalist and critic. She is known as a literary critic for Deutschlandradio Kultur, and as an essayist and columnist for newspapers such as ''Die Welt'' and ''Frankfurt ...

, 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 sourc ...

and the activist

Elizabeth Wathuti Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti (born August 1, 1995) is a Kenyan environment and climate activist and founder of the Green Generation Initiative, which nurtures young people to love nature and be environmentally conscious at a young age and has now pl ...

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 Elevate Artivism Award: Partycipation Elevate Awards 2015 Elevate Award Steiermark: Allerleihladen International Elevate Award:

White Helmets White Helmets may refer to: * White Helmets Commission, a body of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship * White Helmets (Syrian Civil War), a volunteer organization in Syria and Turkey ** ''The 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