Ars Electronica was established in 1979. Although just 26 years ago, in terms of digital history, it's more like the dark ages. If you think about it like that, the people of Linz just rock!

We asked a number of people why Linz began Ars. I mean, how many digital fanatics could there have been in this tiny little European town over twenty years ago? In actuality, the answer is quite connected to industry and tourism. Let's think about the distribution of power in Austria. Vienna, the most popular location, is the capital of music, with tons of art museums. Then there's famed Salzburg, home of Mozart and the Salzburg (music) Festival. Its existence is like a mosquito bump on your eyelid. Then there are the popular ski resorts of Innsbruck and Jenbach. All that's left is Graz, Austria's second most populous city with 400,000 people, and the third most populous city with 200,000...Linz. These two cities are industrial cities. Their blackened smokestacks have spewed smoke for the country, but as a result, they are ignored by tourists.

Ah, the sorrow of Linz. All she can do to welcome the 21st century is to spew smoke and wail, what about me? And so sound the birth cries of the digital music festival, Ars Electronica--a radical, industrial music festival not found in classical Vienna and Salzburg. Technology advanced, and with the development of media, suddenly the baby became the great father.

Today, both in Japan and around the world, media art festivals have sprung up and disappeared, but among them, Ars has continued along its 25-year life like the gentle flow of the Danube River itself. Soaked in the perpetuity of time, you can feel this history in the air. This is no ordinary festival.