Newnoise readers: have you ever fancied going to Africa? Experience the sheer beauty of the country, soak up the culture? What, you couldn’t afford it? How about you just pay for a part-time member of Animal Collective to go instead?

In an unfathomably stupid move, sometime Animal Collective member Josh Deakin has asked fans to donate $25,000 (yes, $25,000) to enable himself and a couple of friends to play at a music festival in Mali, and probably go on safari or something.

For $20 you’ll get a signed photo from the trip, $100 will get you a CD of edited sounds from the trip (translation: he’ll leave a dictaphone running) and $200 will get you an art book from the trip.

“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” says Deakin. As an aside, the average Mali worker’s annual salary is approximately $1,500 in US dollars.

If you’ve got a spare hundred dollars burning a hole in your pocket, why not head over to Deakin’s Kickstarter page and contribute. Trust us, there’s nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of paying for someone else’s holiday during a recession!