On Tuesday in the early morning the Elevate Festival 2010 ended. For five days international guests like Iara Lee, Béatrice Achaleke and Mike Bonanno were discussing some of the most important issues of our time and tried to find ways for everyone to work against the climate and economic crisis.

At the same time Elevate offered a wide range of electronic music, which inspired conscious listening. Big names like Robert Hood, Joy Orbison und Merzbow made music aside the mainstream and showed their desire for experiments.

Since then the music has faded, but the discussed problems remain and shouldn’t be forgotten. The numerous video interviews with artists and experts are a chance to dig even deeper into the topics and the video-roundups give an overview of all festival days.

Furthermore today at 23:35 CET the festival will be featured with a half-hour special in the ORF “Donnerstag Nacht”!

FM4 accompanied the five day programme and will play many live recordings in the next few days.

on3 (Bayerischer Rundfunk) reported about the Elevate Festival 2010, too.

Free Radio Helsinki from Graz reported and recorded more than 10 hours of live material.

Numerous photos are available here.

Festival organizers Bernhard Steirer, Daniel Erlacher and Roland Oreski want to thank all the visitors, staff members, co-workers, media cooperations and sponsors and are looking forward to next year.

Yesterday at 20:00 CET the opening of the Elevate Festival took place in the well attended Dom im Berg. Johannes Grenzfurthner, part of the art collective monochrom, was moderating the evening. After some introducing words from the festival organizers, interviews with two representatives of important environmentalist groups were following. Bill McKibben was speaking about the worldwide actions and goals of the initiative 350.org, which was named after the requested maximal CO2-concentration in the atmosphere of 350 ppm.

Nnimmo Bassey, who is the Executive Director of Nigeria’s foremost environmental rights advocacy group, told about his work for Friends of the Earth International and wrote a text for the Elevate Festival, which can be found here.

The speeches are available here (Bill McKibben) and here (Nnimmo Bassey) as an audio download.

After that the American media activist and filmmaker Mike Bonanno, who has caused a worldwide sensation with his communication guerrilla collective The Yes Men, was presenting some of his most successful actions. Thereafter he was available for conversation with the audience. FM4 reportet in detail about the first impressions of this year's discourse programme.

At 10:00 pm Fritz Ostermayer and Felix Kubin were opening the new literature programme. With a combination of angular, pulsating music and anarchistic text fragments, the duo evoked new perceptions on the worn-out structure of our society.

Afterwards there was live music on both floors of the Dom im Berg with artists like Walls, Over The Stars, Piece of Shh... and many more. Further coverage on the FM4 website.

Here are photos of the opening event!

Last year the Elevate Festival screened the documentary film „The Yes Men Fix The World“. This year one half of The Yes Men, the filmmaker and media activist Mike Bonanno, will be a guest of the festival and do a presentation at the opening event as well as participate in a discussion panel on Sunday evening.

The media activist, who has caused a worldwide sensation with his partner Andy Bichlbaum in the communication guerrilla collective The Yes Men, will be a first time guest in Graz and humorously present some of his most successful actions.

The Yes Men have been called "the Jonathan Swift of the Jackass generation" by author Naomi Klein. They pose as corporate bigwigs, infiltrate the world of big business, and scandalize unsuspecting audiences in ways that shame the world's biggest corporate criminals. Although fronted by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, their membership includes hundreds of secret agents.

The group first gained international notoriety a decade ago by impersonating World Trade Organization spokesmen on international TV and at business conferences. In 2004, United Artists released a feature documentary about their hijinks (The Yes Men, directed by Chris Smith, Sarah Price, and Dan Olman) that was distributed theatrically around the globe, and won numerous awards.

On their journey, The Yes Men act as gonzo journalists, delving deep into the question of why we have given the market more power than any other institution to determine our direction as a society. And as they appear on the BBC before 300 million viewers, or before 1000 New Orleans contractors alongside Mayor Ray Nagin, the layers of lies are peeled back to reveal the raw heart of truth - a truth that brings with it hope.

Don't miss them at Elevate:

- Thursday, October 21st - Opening Night @ Dom im Berg (2000 CET)

- Sunday, October 24th - Panel Discussion @ Dom im Berg (2000 CET)