Having bore witness to the dozens of talks, gigs and happenings that went on in and around the stoney innards of the Schloßberg in Austria’s second city of Graz - including the unbeatable Friday night helmed by a sizeable chunk of the Hyperdub roster - it was easy to decide whether or not to visit the 11th annual gathering for Elevate Festival. It deserves to be as synonymous with our descent into Winter as the trees shedding their leaves, albeit with a lot less sleep and a lot more dancing. For 2015 there are four days and nights of forward-thinking music going late into the morning, and dozens of discussions and seminars for those who survive the nights, focusing on this year’s theme of ‘Creative Response’ with appearances from the likes of Indian environmental leader Vandana Shiva, technologist and Documentally.com founder Christian Payne, and Bass music luminary Larisa Mann (aka DJ Ripley).

As usual, a healthy number of UK and US artists are due to appear alongside many from Austria’s own very healthy underground and electronic scene. Presented by Noisey, Thursday sees Viennese wunderkind techno keyboardist Dorian Concept headlining with his new live trio set up, following on from sets from Heatsick and NYC-based Eartheater (Alex Drewchin from Guardian Alien). Read a vintage tQ interview with Heatsick here. Friday has the main stage taken over by Austria’s primary youth radio station FM4, promising nasty footwork and ghetto house from the likes of RP Boo (who’s latest for Planet Mu received a top write-up from tQ) and DJ Funk, while the smaller stage will see a cosmic excursion into synth music, musique concrète and beyond with an Editions Mego showcase, featuring sets from Steve Hauschildt, Helm and Prostitutes (with whom you can read an ace chat done by tQ’s Sophie Coletta here.

Saturday has the Red Bull Music Academy take over the main stage in the cavernous innards of the Schloßberg, with sets due from the veritable messiah of ancestral house music - Osunlade - in addition to The Black Madonna, and a live set from French kosmische and psychedelic visionary sax player, producer, and member of Zomby Zomby, Etienne Jaumet. Demdike Stare spin cuts from their Testpressings series, and Suuns & Jerusalem in My Heart bring their art-punk-meets-MENA-avantgarde collaboration to the aptly named ‘Dungeon’ stage. Sunday has veteran UK producer Herbert, and the impossibly brilliant Finnish afrobeat bandleader/producer/composer and Warp veteran Jimi Tenor bring the festival to a close.

Full lineup details can be found here, and ticket details can be found here

Day tickets are €20 prebooked, or €24 on the door for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or €10 on the door for Thursday. Full festival tickets cost a mere €54. Packages with local hotels are available too.

The festival takes place from October 22-26.

You can also listen to a Spotify playlist featuring many of the artists playing this year’s festival below: