Breaking News! Sunday June 22nd Deadline for $5 or more Contributors to be listed in Festival Program!
The Festival Needs Your Help!
Despite having reached our base goal of $1,000 any donation, even $1 is still helpful. We set an achievable goal that only represents the bare minimum to pay the out of town artists. Anything further still goes to the musicians and if we can break $1,200 we could realistically compensate the local Olympia artists as well.
If you give as little as $5 it goes directly to compensate the top tier acts traveling to play in Olympia, and we will mention you in the festival program (if you wish).
Here's the story:
In 1995 Ricardo Wang of the program What's This Called? at KAOS FM in Olympia WA got an email from a musician asking if he knew any place for a flutist and electronics improvisor from Florida to play in town. The dj decided to post on some internet mailing lists and see if other musicians who played unusual and challenging music might want to play as well. In less than a month a festival was born that would help put Olympia on the map as a place to experience strange and visceral music.
Two decades later we bring you an anniversary fest which proves once again that this town and this event are an apex of creative culture and boundary expansion. With sets slated by the likes of renowned NYC composer/improvisor Elliott Sharp, Mark Hosler of legendary culture jammers Negativland, Olympia's own Replikants (featuring members of Unwound), avant-jazz saxophonist Aram Shelton, Impulsive Machinations featuring Thollem McDonnas and Sara Lund (also formerly of Unwound), theremin noisician Malaise (Kento Oiwa of IQU) and 12 other unique and impelling acts, this looks to be one of the best runs in the history of the event!
Why the OEMF needs your help...
Our festival believes that great experimental musicians deserve to be compensated for traveling to a small town to share their music. The festival promoters and organizers are all volunteers and nobody is paid at this event except the musicians. This is a completely DIY event with low ticket prices and All Ages shows.
This festival receives no government or corporate grants. With most of the door money going to rent the space, this crowd sourcing fundraiser is really the way the artists get compensated for the travel and playing. We really appreciate your help, because we really need it.
This year's goal is to raise at least $1,000. Obviously we'd really like to do a little better than that to help compensate the quality of artists we have playing, but we'd really like to at least raise that milestone. Our festival has never raised that much before, but this is the 20th annual, and we want it to be a weekend to remember!
We hope you can come to the Northern and see the artists play, and buying a pass would be every bit as helpful as giving through Indiegogo. But not everyone can make it Olympia this year, and many still want to help keep this great thing going. If you are going and appreciate how low the door price is kept and want to give the artists a bit more, this is your chance to help as well.
And what amazing and rare thank you prizes we have gathered for those who can give! Signed posters from Arrington De Dionyso, What's This Called? live music 4 cd sets, vinyl album from Derek M. Johnson, rare Negativland book, and brunch with Mark Hosler. So many levels to choose from, they all help, and you keep the prizes.
The Impact
This campaign has a big impact on the festival and the people that come to play:
- This festival has helped put Olympia and the NW on the map as a location for boundary stretching sounds and performances. We're proud to have arisen in the same city that brought you the International Pop Underground and Yo-Yo a Go-Go . We also take pride at being Olympia's longest running festival of any music genre.
- Nobody's actually counted but it's a safe estimate that the festival has presented some 300 different artists in the past 20 years.
- What's great about this event is that it the musicians and the people who come to watch them who make the whole thing happen. Not only are all of the organizers unpaid volunteers, we are all playing in various acts at the fest as well. If we raise more than $1000 we may actually be able to pay the local Olympia acts some amount, but otherwise they are donating their time so the out of town acts can play.
Other Ways You Can Help
Some people just can’t contribute, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help:
- Please share this campaign on your Facebook and Twitter pages and let everybody know about the 20th Annual Olympia Experimental Music Festival.
- You can use the Indiegogo share tools to help us get the word out too!
- If you are in the NW or passing though, please JOIN US at the Northern to see the music happen!
