Review Elevate Festival 2022

After a postponement due to the pandemic, Elevate took place for the second time in the summer from 13 to 17 July 2022. The audience, some of whom were very international, enlivened the city with young, contemporary festival culture at 12 venues and more than 43 individual events.

New festival venues such as the Orangerie of the Burggarten, the Lesliehof or the Heimatsaal of the Graz Volkskundemuseum, which functioned as a new discourse location, were very popular with the audience, which was also due to the summer temperatures and the consistently fine weather.

The musical highlights included the performance of pop icon Peaches at the Orpheum on Saturday, which spread euphoria across the generations, a beautiful Sunday matinée at the Orangerie of the Burggarten in Graz, and the performance of Ukrainian rapper Alyona Alyona at the Postgarage. She also signed the Golden Book of the City of Graz in the presence of the Graz city government.

In connection with the festival theme Transition, the discourse area of the festival offered interesting discussions on such diverse topics as psychology and mental wealth, propaganda and disinformation in times of war and crisis, as well as crypto, blockchain, NFTs and net politics.

The bridge to the music area succeeded with artist talks by the two festival headliners Peaches and Alyona Alyona.

The Elevate Arts section was characterised by very well-attended interventions and installations in the Mausoleum of the Cathedral Church, the Forum Stadtpark and the Orpheum Extra.

The red flags of Digital Dictatorship by the artist couple Zara Alexandrova and Zoran Georgiev were widely received by the media and visible from afar in the cityscape; they were put up in the immediate vicinity of the Graz clock tower.

The waiting time until then will be shortened by the concert of Hercules & Love Affair and Sofia Kourtesis, which will take place on 12 November at the Orpheum.

The festival would like to thank all its supporters, partners, sponsors and the large team of staff for their excellent cooperation. And of course to the thousands of people who for 5 days have once again shown how diverse and lively contemporary festival culture can be lived and celebrated.