Help Deakin get to Africa!

December 8th, 2009

Chris

Courtesy: Pitchfork

Joshua Dibb, better known as part-time Animal Collective member Deakin (or Deacon), wants to go to Africa. He’s been invited to play at the Festival in the Desert, which goes down January 7-9 in Essakane, Mali. The problem: The Festival in the Desert folks can’t pay for Dibb’s international travel. So Dibb has taken to the fundraising website Kickstarter, and he’s asking fans to pledge money to support those expenses.

But you won’t have to donate the money strictly out of the goodness of your own heart. For anyone who pledges $20, Dibb is offering a signed photo from the trip. For $100, you get a hand-packaged and numbered CD featuring “sounds and music recorded on the trip, as sculpted and edited by Josh upon his return.” $150 gets you a signed, limited-edition art book about the trip. Check here for details.

The target fundraising goal is $25,000, to be reached by December 31. That steep price is explained thusly: “The traveling party to the Festival in Desert is comprised of three people and all the costs of international travel, transportation to the desert site, book production costs, CD replication, packaging costs, shipping, layout designer costs, etc… are what make up the financial goal that we are striving for. If there is any money left after these expenses, we plan to donate it to the Festival in the Desert.”

Full disclosure: Pitchfork publisher Chris Kaskie is an investor in Kickstarter.