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Photo credit: Daniel Kindler

That spectacular festival location: the entire city centre of Graz

Clubs, bars, parks, warehouses, the interior of a mountain, market places and public spaces spontaneously taken, guerrilla-style, for performances; these are the diverse stages for this festival unique in Europe. The programme merges with the city’s special pieces of architecture, urban savoir-vivre and rich choice of dining. The whole centre of Graz will pulsate to the rhythm of the festival for five days and four nights in mid-June. The buzz will surely spill out of the clubs into the mild nights of early summer and well into the dawning days.

Drum and bass sensation Chase & Status in Graz

With Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status), Graz will be receiving drum and bass royalty. The two Brits, along with their companion and front man of many years, Patrick Williams (Rage), will be giving an audience at the springfestival as part of their current tour. When Saul Milton and Will Kennard got to know each other in the mid-90s in London, neither thought then that they would go on to achieve three number-1 chart positions in the UK dance charts. On the way to that reality they built careers without compare and became an unshakeable mainstay of the worldwide jungle movement. Through their music they brought drum and bass from underground into the charts, influencing an entire generation. To date the duo have released four studio albums and collaborated with big artists like Plan B, CeeLo Green, Rihanna, Example, Dave Ball and Tinie Tempah. Their live shows bring in record attendances. That means sell-out tours in Europe and the USA along with repeat festival appearances all over the world, from Coachella to Big Day Out, from Ibiza Rocks to Summersonic in Japan. In 2018 they returned to the studio and now, on their RTRN II Jungle Tour, celebrating their musical roots in 90s Jungle, they present their latest work at the springfestival in Graz.

Photo credit: Spring festival Graz

They’re back! Tocotronic sweeten our spring

Following a sell-out tour in early 2018 and a successful festival season, Tocotronic, “Germany´s most intelligent band” (ARD) embarked on their “unendliche Tour” and will be honouring the springfestival 2019. Albeit, as they themselves say, contrary to the cliché Tocotronic concerts won’t be dealing out seminars. It will be much more about magical storytelling with crashing guitars and roaring feedback storms. Dark, beautiful, no-frills and to the point, this exceptional band will perform live a cross-section of their musical works of the last 25 years. Weep collective tears of joy to “Drüben auf dem Hügel” [up there on the hill], raise your left fist to “Aber hier Leben, nein Danke” [but living here, no thanks] and revel together to “Electric Guitar”. In short: go on a journey with Tocotronic. To infinity – and far beyond.

Soap&Skin at Graz Kasematten soon to be sold out

Following a long, 7-year break from giving concerts, Anja Plaschg, alias Soap&Skin, is returning to Graz on June 19th2019 for the opening of the 19thspringfestival. She’s acknowledged as Austria’s most promising act when it comes to experimental pop music. With the opening concert on Graz’s Schlossberg hill, the springfestival returns once more to Austria’s most beautiful stage, the Kasematten. Advance ticket sales for this exclusive concert are already in full swing. Anyone still needing tickets to the open-air event of the year should get a move-on because, alongside concerts in the capital city Vienna, the show in Graz is the only one in the federal provinces. www.springfestival.at and at oeticket.at.

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Photo credit: Daniel Kindler

Monika Kruse: the Techno pioneer conquers Graz

She’s one of Techno’s most enduring artists. It was at the beginning of the 90s that Monika Kruse had a decisive influence on the revolutionary development of European club culture. The story of Monika Kruse reads like a gripping novel that describes a quarter of a century of Techno culture. At the beginning of the 90s she organised raves in abandoned bunkers in Munich. Here her legendary label, Terminal M, played a decisive role and has now been assembling a musical record of this cultural movement for17 years. It carried releases by artists including veterans like DJ Rush as well as young stars like Stimming and Andhim. Alongside her early role in the emerging Munich rave scene of the 90s, Monika Kruse made musical history with her legendary residency at the infamous and notorious Ultraschall nightclub. She played alongside DJ Hell and Tobi Neumann among others. She was one of the first German Techno artists who toured internationally. She did a residency together with Carl Cox at the Global Gathering in Great Britain, at Limelight in New York with DJ Pierrein and, at the end of the 90s, at the legendary Belgian Fuse nightclub. Back on home ground, Monika was regularly to be seen next to Sven Vath in Omen. In June she’s set to be one of the hottest acts at the springfestival.

Photo credit: Philipp Meikl

Spectacular installation on the façade of Kunsthaus Graz

This year once again the Mobile Mapping Tour, in collaboration with Sound:frame, MapLab and FH Joanneum, will make Graz shine during the springfestival. This year too, the Mobile Mapping Tour will involve a bicycle-mounted projector in guerrilla-style launching of spontaneous, animated visuals onto façades, squares and other architectural scenery. Also to be counted upon again this year of course is a spectacular installation in collaboration with Sound:frame at Kunsthaus Graz. Audio-visual artist Zalán Szakács will transform Kunsthaus Graz into a sound-machine with his project “Ornament” on June 22nd2019. Ornaments will enliven the architecture of the BIX media façade and make the Kunsthaus sound out in an audio-visual performance.

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