Review: Day One - Elevate Opening

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!