50,000 Visitors in Four Weeks: Design Month Graz 2024 Draws a Positive Balance. Design Month Graz came to an end yesterday and looks back on its 15th edition with a highly positive balance: Around 50,000 people engaged with the diverse program under the credo “What now!?”.
What now? In the context of a world in transition, Design Month 2024 posed this question to its community and showcased answers from a wide spectrum from May 3 to June 2. These were made visible and discussed through exhibitions, presentations, workshops, and other event formats over the course of four weeks. Eberhard Schrempf, Managing Director of Creative Industries Styria, which organizes Design Month Graz, stated: “With the focus theme ‘What now!?’, we called the design community to action and simultaneously demonstrated its potential. It has long been known that urgent action is needed in many areas for a more sustainable future. Now it must come to implementation, in a collaboration of many actors. For this reason, Design Month 2024 brought interdisciplinary positive examples from various domains to the forefront.”
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The program centered on the festival hub at the Hornig Areal behind Graz Main Station, extended throughout the city, and reached southern Styria with branches in Hollenegg, Trahütten, Pöllau, Weiz, and Kirchberg an der Raab. Familiar formats such as the city center initiative “Design in the City” enjoyed great popularity, and the Designforum Styria at its new address in Landhausgasse saw high attendance. The key figures for the month-long festival of design and creativity were announced today:
- Around 50,000 visitors attended from May 3 to June 2
- 140 events took place in these 30 days
- 120 project partners were involved in Design Month
- Guests from 15 nations traveled to the UNESCO City of Design Graz
- First held in 2009 and only canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, this was the fifteenth edition of Design Month Graz
Festival Hub Hornig Areal as a Success Story
In 2024, Design Month had a designated festival hub for the first time: the former Hornig Areal on Waagner-Biro-Straße, one of the last centrally located industrial sites in the city of Graz. The development and enhancement of the area during Design Month can be seen as an important success story in the context of urban transformation: The vacancy on-site gave way to four weeks of a burst of creative power, attracting a wide audience far beyond the design community and drawing tens of thousands to the site. Given this momentum, a longer-term use of the area is recommended. CIS Managing Director Eberhard Schrempf stated: “We are in active exchange with relevant stakeholders from business and politics to continue infusing the Hornig Areal with creativity and innovative spirit. What the future holds for the site remains to be seen. The potential is there.”
About Design Month 2024
From May 3 to June 2, the fifteenth Design Month Graz took place, organized and hosted by Creative Industries Styria. “What now?” With a clear view of a world in transition, the 2024 program posed this one question. For four weeks, it showcased answers from a broad spectrum, given space on one of the last centrally located industrial sites in the city of Graz: the former Hornig Areal on Waagner-Biro-Straße behind the main station.