Elevate’s professed aim is to combine politics with art and music within a special framework. The two areas of politics/education and art/music will be equally emphasized to achieve a mutual revaluation.

Having the Schlossberg as the festival’s central location allows for fast and easy exchange between the two worlds.

In the festival’s music area exciting acts and musical styles far from the mainstream will be presented and with the thought of Elevate as a kind of interface, connections between invited guests and local artists, collectives and institutions will be established.

It is the festival organizers utmost concern to encourage people to develop a more conscious and critical handling of their own perception of media and reality, to motivate participants to realize their own projects and to present new avenues (e.g. through new technologies) by which this can be done.

Through an extensive programme of workshops, discussions and presentations of innovative projects hosted by international scholars and activists, Elevate Festival 2008, strives to raise awareness of the essential importance of the Commons. Focus will be placed on the social and economic conflicts surrounding the use of Commons.