WORDS | Colin Steven
PHOTOGRAPHY | Bernhard Ranner,
Augennerv and
www.droidmedia.com
AL
SPRINGEIGHT FESTIV
@ GRAZ, A
USTRIA
Every year since 2001, the beautiful city of Graz has been transformed into
a clubbing cultural hotspot for the Springfestival, the biggest festival of its
kind in Austria and her neighbouring countries. What started as ‘springone
- festival for electronic art and music’ has considerably increased in size and
scale each year. In 2008, springeight took place in 14 venues all over Graz, with
more than 250 artists playing for almost 20,000 people, making it one of the
most important modern music events in Central Europe. The musical program
spans nearly all the genres - from drum & bass to dubstep, electro and techno
to house, breakbeat to hip hop, downtempo and ambient to dub, reggae and
raga and beyond.
An important part of the springeight experience is the daytime programming,
which features Red Bull Music Academy sessions and soundlabs, workshops,
book presentations and readings, a video exhibition in the local museum for
contemporary art, various symposiums. Then there was the Synthesizerpark
exhibition and workshop comprising of old school analogue synthesizers,
beatboxes & drummachines and analogue stepsequencers.
The highlights are almost too many to mention but the fi rst day was especially
good. It all started in the evening with an open-air early concert at a former 16th
century prison set atop a mountain in the city centre. There were energetic live
performances from Roni Size’s Reprazent, MC Rage’s new rock band Inner City
Dwellers, The Streets, Roisin Murphy and Robyn. Then at night was an incredible
line up from the Exit and Integral labels: Fabio, Bryan Gee, D-Bridge, A.I., Break,
Lynx, Sabre, Lomax, Survival and LowQui.
The fi nal night was a cracker as well with four good nights at different venues
thoughout the city. The End took over Dom im Berg, the festival’s main venue,
with a great line-up that represented the club’s wide musical spectrum: DJ
Marky & Stamina MC, Gilles Peterson, Bushwacka and End owner Mr C. The
PPC venue hosted a breaks spectacular featuring the Dub Pistols, Baobinga
and Atomic Hooligan, while the Postgarage had more experimental sounds
with Hot Chip, Daedelus and Luke Vibert. Last but not least was the night at
Arcadium featuring militant drum & bass from Dying Punks (Raiden’s new
project), Temper D and The Sect.
www.kmag.co.uk
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